Johnny Butter's American Narcissism Presents Butter On The Block A Cinematic Mental Health Movement

PRLog (Press Release) - May 22, 2011 - Nicholas Bernard Hansen is spending 40 days on his city block in Uptown, Minneapolis to advocate for mental health and illness awareness. For the past three years, Hansen, a filmmaker, actor, producer, and poet has been documenting his life with Bipolar Affective Disorder #1 with Psychotic Features through a project titled Johnny Butter's American Narcissism which combines video, writings, social media, and a website (www.bipolarbutter.com) to educate the public on living a life with mental illness, or mental coolness as Hansen has began to call it.
    Johnny Butter is Hansen's alter ego fictional character that he uses in short skits to show rather then tell what it is like to live with mental illness. Producer and Concordia University psychology graduate Gonkama Johnson declares, "It has been a pleasure to work with Mr. Hansen as he learns to live with his own mental illness, while helping to educate the public on the pitfalls and the beauty of regaining stability after leaving a psych ward." Hansen was hospitalized while acting and producing in a local feature film while having a manic episode. Hansen credits sobriety and an unbelievable support system to achieving an equilibrium, "After I left the hospital, I entered an almost catatonic-like depression that I though I would never come out of, but through the help of family and friends I did get better, and now that I am feeling better, I have a great desire to make my life work be the combination of psychology and art to inform while entertaining the public. Everyday is still a struggle, but I am learning the tools to thrive."
    Hansen is currently at day seven on his time on the block and looks forward to seeing how his own mental health improves as he is learning to relax and sleep better, two areas he has consistently struggled with. He pumps out ten to fifteen videos per day on his youtube and facebook page both vlogging about his day-to-day experiences and creating short films that aim to show rather then tell what mental illness is and how mental health can possibly be achieved.
  Visitors interested in the project are welcomed to contact Hansen, as he is very willing to talk about his own experiences. Events that are coming up are a Mental Health Mile around the block,  a block party with all proceeds going to charity, and a feature-film docudrama on manic depression appearing in a local Minneapolis theatre soon after the forty days is complete.

Contact Info:

Nicholas Bernard Hansen
218-428-4078
nicholas.bernard.hansen@gmail.com

Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtlExsYVd7o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbysAKbHTCo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuqneBjt5z4

http://www.bipolarbutter.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages/JOHNNY-BUTTERS-AMERICAN-NARCISSISM/209269791368?ref=ts

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Johnny Butter's American Narcissism is a cinematic mental health movement that creates entertaining, engaging psychological art to educate and inform the public, both those who suffer with mental illness, and those who do not.

Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/11504185/1