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Short Student Film Shows the Struggle of Anxiety

This film, entitled PANIC, talks about a teen boy named Kevin’s (Philippe Sandel) daily struggle with anxiety and panic attacks. It eloquently illustrates the feeling of anxiety by using metaphors such as being trapped underwater, or in quicksand. The film is set to premier at North Carolina cinemas in the Hickory region during the pre-screening time.

Zach Perry, a student at Discovery High School, created the video as a senior project. Zach has been filming for years, and has both an aerial photography company and his own Youtube account, Epic Mustache. When asked why he chose to make a movie about anxiety, he replied:

“I’ve been thinking about the film for about 2 and half years actually. Anxiety is such a hard thing to diagnosis and even describe to other people, they just don’t get it. I’ve always had to use metaphors to explain what it’s like, it’s truly invisible but it changes the way you live. So I knew that as a filmmaker with anxiety, this could be the voice for people who don’t know how to put it into words.”

He adds that there have been several people to message him saying that the video accurately describes the anxiety that they can’t explain. He is happy he has given a voice to a subset of the population which is often unheard.

Zach plans to attend the University of North Carolina School of the Arts for their cinematography program, which is in the top five in the nation. He plans to pursue directing as a career. “I strongly hope for film to be a career, I’d love to be able to spend my life doing something I’m crazy about each day… and maybe getting payed for it too!”

Zach has directed other short films which are posted on his Youtube channel as well, including the horror films “Clownface”, “The Visitor”, and “3:06”. You can visit his channel here.

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