About this Short Film
What happens when a diagnosis shapes how others interpret your emotions? In this short film, Viola Sunrise reflects on living with bipolar disorder and the challenges of being understood on her own terms. Listen explores the difference between being heard and being truly listened to, and the connection and belonging that can grow in community from genuine understanding.
In the filmmaker's words
Listen is intended as a discussion piece. It opens the door to questions, education, and the human right to feel and express emotion in a condition that is often polarised by society and popular media. To be recognised and understood is to experience inclusion and belonging. Through Viola’s lived experience, the film explores the importance of being truly listened to. By deliberately concealing faces and leaning into sound as a storytelling device, the film invites audiences to move beyond visual assumptions and instead engage through listening. Silence, repetition, and music are used as intentionally as dialogue, reinforcing the idea that understanding begins not with looking, but with truly listening.
— Jane Byrne
Film Details
Film Transcript
Day one. Someone has died. Do I have the right to feel emotion? Yes.
Day two. I want a job. I love my job. I could lose my job. Do I have the right to feel emotion? Yes.
Day three. A relationship has ended. Do I have the right to feel emotion?
Are you okay?
When people know I'm bipolar, interaction is diagnosed. People stop listening and start jumping to conclusions. If I'm happy, it's bipolar. If I'm sad, it's bipolar. Sometimes I laugh loudly because something is genuinely funny. Now, even laughter is under the lens. It can be exhausting being misunderstood. It's all human experience. Sometimes it's simply felt more deeply. It becomes harder to express myself and feel comfortable doing so. I want simply to be. There must be room for humanity. Listen, I need a translator. We all want to be understood. I found my voice with music and community who listen.
G. That's it. Okay. So, and the instrumentals after the second verse, we're thinking yes. Take it from the top of the chorus from "I am going to be fine." I reckon you're going to get a good recording out of that. Whenever you're ready. One, two, three, four. Heat.
Filmmaker
Jane Byrne is the filmmaker behind this entry. See every Focus on Ability entry from Jane Byrne.
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Hear, hear! I live with Bipolar too, and couldn’t express the heart of the matter any more succinctly. This film works to debunk stigma and tell the world we too are just humans.