Image via Cinema Therapy
Cinema Therapy title card
Milwaukee is getting a dose of therapy and film analysis this weekend.
YouTube channel Cinema Therapy is coming to the Vivarium on August 7. It is run by licensed therapist Jonathan Decker and filmmaker Alan Seawright, who analyze films through the lenses of therapy. This includes exploring themes such as mental health, personal growth, relationships and family dynamics through analyzing film characters and plots.
“One is to share things that will help people in their relationships and with their mental health in a way that is entertaining and engaging,” said Decker when asked about the reasoning behind the channel’s creation. “And the second is so Alan and I can play together and do creative stuff together.”
Decker and Seawright have been friends for 21 years, first meeting in college in 2005. Over time, the two drifted apart. In 2019, the concept of Cinema Therapy was born. While brainstorming what to create together after reuniting, Decker came up with the central idea and Seawright immediately agreed.
Six months later, the Covid pandemic started, and the pair decided to strike while the iron was hot because everyone was stuck inside their homes during that time. On April 3, 2020, their first video, “Radical Acceptance & Dealing with Hardship in THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING,” was posted.
Seawright and Decker’s theme for their first tour has been “Movie Couple Therapy.” The pair will focus on the relationship dynamics between Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise during Friday’s show. When it comes to choosing what films or characters to focus on for their videos, it comes down to the content that they consume and what their audience wants to see.
“I think that’s one that we just had on our list for like a couple of years of like, ‘this is an episode we’re going to do,’” said Seawright when discussing what led to Turner and Swann being the focus of their live shows. “And I was like, ‘oh, let’s just do that for the tour.’”.
Photo via Cinema Therapy
Cinema Therapy meetup event
Licensed therapist Jonathan Decker and filmmaker Alan Seawright with fans of Cinema Therapy.
Since live shows require interaction with an audience, it is no surprise that Decker and Seawright have such a strong connection with their fanbase that has strengthened even more through in-person interactions at the shows. According to Decker, meeting people that have been touched by what they do is very profound and meaningful to them.
“We’ve had people who were contemplating or about to die by suicide and they caught it,” said Decker when asked about what personal stories fans have told them at shows when describing Cinema Therapy’s impact on them. “We’ve had people talk about how their marriage came back from the brink of divorce.”
When it comes to deciding what cities to visit while on tour, Seawright stated that it was based on wanting to visit new places and focusing on where their content is viewed the most. Using YouTube data, Decker and Seawright can see a map of where they are popular in the United States. Even though Cinema Therapy is broad reaching, their map looks like a population map with entertainment industry hot spots.
Examples include New York and Los Angeles, the latter of which they visited in February at the start of the tour. Even though Seawright has visited Milwaukee before, the city consists of a big enough portion of their fanbase to justify this weekend’s show.
Other cities that Decker and Seawright have visited include Vancouver, Portland, Berkeley, Seattle and Minneapolis. Milwaukee’s show will serve as the penultimate tour stop, as they will end it in Chicago on August 8. Tickets are on sale now.
