Webinar On-Demand: A Conversation About Mental Health Striking A Chord

Warning: This video includes strong language and discusses mental illness and suicide. It may be upsetting to some viewers.

On World Health Day 2025—April 7—the Pulitzer Center hosted a virtual screening of Sparni, a film about Pierce “Sparni” Sparnroft (they/them), a young, gifted jazz vibraphonist navigating a bipolar disorder diagnosis.

The film by 2024 Pulitzer Center Reporting Fellows Nathan Siegelaub and Ania Gruszczyńska follows Sparnroft, a Montclair State University student, as the musician tries to make the most of a musical gift while battling mental illness. Since childhood, Sparnroft has endured bouts of hyperactivity followed by depressive crashes.

A Q&A followed the screening. The filmmakers joined Sparnroft and Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison, a psychiatry professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, for a conversation moderated by journalist and Pulitzer Center grantee Micah Fink. The panelists talked about the intersection of art and mental health, creativity and crisis.

Jamison is an award-winning mood disorders expert who co-authored Manic-Depressive Illness: Bipolar Disorders and Recurrent Depression, a medical text on manic–depressive illness. She is also a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Her book Robert Lowell, Setting the River on Fire: A Study of Genius, Mania, and Character was a 2018 finalist in the biography category.

View the webinar to listen to their conversation.  

The recording contains only the Q&A and has been edited to exclude the screening. 

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat on 988lifeline.org.

Key Highlights:

• Jamison called the film “a wonderful combination of artistic talent on both sides.” She said the film goes beyond music and has the potential to help other people with experiences similar to Sparnroft's. “Bipolar is an illness that can really isolate you from people, and I think this kind of work really makes it a lot easier.” 
   
• Siegelaub said the filmmakers “were careful to walk a fine line” while discussing the most sensitive aspects of Sparnroft's mental health. “Ania and I had multiple conversations during production about telling a story that would bring out emotions in people,” he said. “But we wanted to tell a true story.” Gruszczyńska agreed, saying she “felt a strong sense of responsibility for telling a very vulnerable story.”
   
• Sparnroft said they saw music as an outlet for what they were going through, knowing many artists have felt similarly. “I don’t view my being the center of [this film] as, 'Oh, I’m a star!’” they said. “The more stories that come out, the more of a chance there is for someone in the same position to, at the very least, see the patterns and know they can get help.” 
   
• When asked what they would tell their younger self, Sparnroft said, “Keep practicing music. Don’t let all of the bullies get to you as much. Don’t try certain drugs.”