When Ayala Rosenthal first learned that a teenage girl in her Orthodox Jewish community committed suicide, she was devastated. She didn’t know the girl personally but they had mutual friends.

“It was really an eye-opener for me,” said Rosenthal. “First of all, my heart ached for her and her family, just knowing that maybe there could have been more support, there could have been more education, there could have been more resources for her and her family.”

Realizing how prevalent the problem of teen suicide is in her community, Rosenthal, 19, of Squirrel Hill, decided she wanted to educate fellow Orthodox Jews about the resources that were available.

She also realized that she was having her own issues involving depression and anxiety and could recognize the symptoms among her peers. She chose a course of action to deal with her own issues as well as provide as much support as she could to her friends.

Rosenthal, a former student at Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh, has become passionate about teen mental health issues which led to her becoming one of eight area high school students to take part in a bold experiment involving a research method called collaborative filmmaking. Each student made a film and they were given premiere showings Wednesday as part of a virtual film screening and discussion including some of the teens.

In 2019, Rosenthal was interning for the Jewish Healthcare Foundation when she met Sara Baumann, a postdoctoral associate in the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, whose specialty is visual research methods. Baumann had come to the field of public health with a background in documentary filmmaking and worked to develop collaborative filmmaking.

“In conversations with colleagues, we came to this really exciting opportunity to explore mental health in Pittsburgh among youth,” she said.

Baumann led a project in which cameras were given to young people they were doing research with to have them film aspects of their lives. As it happens, the cameras were given to Pittsburgh teens to learn about their mental health just before the pandemic hit. As a result, there are now a variety of films made by Pittsburgh area high schoolers that give an up-close look at the state of their mental health. The screening Wednesday was called “Mental Health Through The Lens of Pittsburgh Youth.”

Rosenthal was one of them. Her film is called “Chasing Happiness.”

Chasing Happiness | A Film By Ayala Rosenthal from Sara Liza Baumann on Vimeo.

“I just wrote out my feelings in a poetic sort of way that I felt expressed the things that I’ve been through, things that I continue to go through, and the mindset that helps me get out of those times,” said Rosenthal.

Her film includes many scenes with her dog, a golden retriever named Timber, and a soundtrack featuring her playing acoustic guitar. Rosenthal’s meditation is captivating and profound. Here’s an excerpt:

“If my life were perfect, I’d imagine that I’d always be happy. But my life is far from perfect. I doubt it was ever created to be that way. But the one thing I know is I was given the opportunity to wake up this morning … there is a reason I am here. And life may not be perfect but I know that I have what it takes to make it the best it can be.”

Rosenthal described the exercise as cathartic.

“So often we go through life and we’re just busy and we have this going on and school and jobs and all these things,” she said. “I think a film project is a really great opportunity to check in with myself and think, ‘what am I going through? What do I want adults in my life to hear about and know? What support do I wish was in place?’ So, it definitely was an experience that brought me a lot of awareness and helped me.”

What just about all of the films had in common were expressions from the students that academic pressures were stressing them out and causing depression and anxiety.

Baumann said all of the students took an extremely thoughtful approach to their films.

“I was completely blown away, especially given the unique time in which they are living, going through quarantine with all the challenges of virtual school, virtual learning and all the stress that comes with living through a pandemic and being a teenager,” said Baumann.

“You could tell that they really took time to think about really reflecting on this question of ‘what are the stressful things in my life?’ And ‘what are the things that bring me hope?’ ”

Baumann said Wednesday’s event was designed to begin engaging the general public in a dialogue about youth mental health issues.

“We’d like to bring these films to critical people in the lives of youth like school administrators, teachers, counselors, social workers, and, in some cases, parents to illustrate the challenges that youth are facing in their lives — people who can make policy decisions that can impact the mental health of youth.”

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