Movie shot in Toledo focuses on mental health issues

Fictional plot dramatizes real issues for local writer, director
Published: Nov. 17, 2021 at 7:43 AM EST
Email This Link
Share on Pinterest
Share on LinkedIn

MAUMEE, Ohio (WTVG) - A movie made in the Toledo area tackles the tough topic of depression and mental health. It’s called “A Story Worth Living,” and this weekend will mark it’s local debut.

The movie, written, directed, and starring Vanessa Leonard, 33, is a fictional story with a personal message. When the graduate of Bowling Green State University wrote the screenplay in 2017, it was long before the pandemic made mental health a national topic of conversation.

Now Leonard and the movie’s assistant director, Kayla Elizabeth, say they are ready to create a dialogue about the effects of depression.

“It’s a very intimate movie. It plays into everything from everyday life to struggling with personal issues, struggling with school, co-workers that you don’t like, sick people that you love, and how to handle everything. How people deal with it differently,” says Elizabeth.

Their movie, which they shot in 2018, has played at film festivals around the world and collected awards along the way. Saturday, Nov. 20, 2021, at 7:00 PM, it’s set to play out on the big screen at the Maumee Indoor Theater. The following Saturday, it will run again at 7:00 PM inside the KeyBank Discovery Theater at Imagination Station.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please include the title when you click here to report it.

Copyright 2021 WTVG. All rights reserved.