You don't have to say a word. Just show up.
Before someone can ask for help, they need to feel like they are not alone. Finding Inspiration Foundation creates that moment, through film, through community, and through direct connection to real mental health resources.
Impact Moment
Coming to the event gave me space to breathe. Being around other men who understood responsibility, pressure, and growth lifted a weight off my shoulders. For the first time in a while, I didn't feel alone. It replaced isolation with connection and reminded me that struggling doesn't mean you're failing. It means you're still in the fight.
- Damon Greene, FIF community member
WHO WE ARE
Most people who need mental health support will never walk into a clinic. Not because they do not want help. But because nothing about the system feels like it was built with them in mind.
Finding Inspiration Foundation exists for those people.
We use original short films and facilitated community conversations to create the kind of space where someone can finally exhale.
A community member shares their story in a private, supported interview. Together, we develop a short narrative film based on their experience.
The film screens at a community event. And every screening is paired with direct access to vetted mental health resources, peer support groups, the NAMI navigator hotline, therapy referrals, and more.
Film becomes the voice for people who are not ready to speak. For those watching, it becomes the permission to finally listen.
We are based in Charlotte, NC. We are a registered 501(c)(3). And we are building something that does not exist anywhere else.
THE PROBLEM
57.8 million Americans are living with a mental illness right now. Only 43% will ever receive any care.
In North Carolina, 97 of 100 counties are federally designated mental health shortage areas, and the state's mental health workforce meets just 13% of documented needs.
The resources exist. The gap is getting people to them.
Stigma keeps men from asking. Clinical distance keeps youth away.
Cultural mistrust keeps entire communities on the outside.
And the loneliness epidemic, which the U.S. Surgeon General has compared to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, keeps getting worse.
That is the gap FIF was built to close.
WHY FILM WORKS + OUR IMPACT
Stories are remembered up to 22 times more effectively than statistics alone.
A 2025 JAMA meta-analysis of 97 randomized trials confirmed that film-based interventions produce significant improvements in stigma, knowledge, and help-seeking behavior. And USC Norman Lear Center research found that viewers of well-crafted mental health storylines showed greater willingness to seek help.
We are not just making films.
We are creating the conditions for people to take the first step.
Our impact includes nearly 100 people connected through monthly community events in 2025.
Four original short films produced and screened, covering suicidal ideation, addiction, single motherhood, seasonal affective disorder, and men's mental health.
Two grants secured in our first full year, including a City of Charlotte Creative Growth Grant.
Monthly events returning April 2026 with the Inspiring Film Series.
OUR PARTNERS
We do not work in isolation.
Our partners include:
- NAMI Charlotte, one of the largest mental health advocacy organizations in the world.
- The Bridges Project with Amy Campbell.
- The Independent Picture House.
- And licensed mental health therapist and filmmaker Frederick Murphy of History Before Us.
We are actively expanding these partnerships across North Carolina and beyond.
Support This Work
Your investment goes directly into production, community spaces, and the hands of people who leave our events with something they did not have before.
Here is what your support makes possible.
$25 provides the resource packet handed to every attendee so no one leaves without a next step.
$50 funds one private interview where someone tells their story on screen for the first time.
$100 sponsors one full community screening from setup to resource handoff.
$5,000 helps fund one quarterly short film.
$15,000 fully funds one complete short film from interview through distribution.
$25,000 supports the annual mental health film festival.
The conversation doesn't end when the film does.
Follow us on Instagram at @findinginspirationinc for behind-the-scenes film content, community moments, and updates on what is coming next. This is where the mission lives between events.
