Albert’s film Welcome to the World has been selected for the fifth edition of Festival de Cortos y Salud Mental in Spain, an event to raise awareness and fight against the stigma related to mental health problems. The film screens alongside four other shorts on Thursday, May 20, 2021, from 11am-1pm local time (5-7am ET), and the session will include a post-screening discussion.

Welcome to the World is among 17 works from France, Iran, India, Canada, Italy, the United States, Colombia, Cuba, and Brazil, among other countries, to be selected from a total of 393 submissions, the highest number since the festival was founded in 2014. The selected works will stream from May 18-21, 2021, on the Association’s YouTube channel.

Welcome to the World is a daring film about a troubled man who records a video message for his pregnant sister. Drawing its power and immediacy from its first-person, confessional style, the film presents, in one continuous shot, the journey of one man’s awakening from isolation back to humanity. The film stars Albert and is directed by Albert and Anthony Grasso.

Richard Propes (The Independent Critic) gives it four stars and writes:

“RIVETING… CHAN’S PERFORMANCE IS DEEPLY MOVING… LINGERS IN YOUR BRAIN LONG AFTER THE CLOSING CREDITS”

Kirk Fernwood (One Film Fan) praises the film as:

“INTELLIGENT, INVENTIVE, AND INSPIRED… CHAN DOES A FANTASTIC JOB… DRAWING YOU IN WITH EVERY WORD… THE FINALE IS A STROKE OF CREATIVE BRILLIANCE AND ARTISTRY”

Max White (OC Movie Reviews) raves:

“CHAN GIVES A GRIPPING, HEARTFELT AND SINCERE PERFORMANCE WHICH PLUNGES YOU INTO THE MURKY WATERS OF MODERN HUMANITY AND MASCULINITY… SQUEEZES SO MUCH RAW EMOTION INTO A SINGLE SHOT”

And Rachel Pullen (UK Film Review) writes:

“LEADING MAN ALBERT M. CHAN… PLAYS AN EMOTIONALLY RAW MAN WITH A GRACE AND EASE THAT IS OFTEN ONLY SEEN WITHIN SOME OF THE MOST HIGH END ACTORS… PACKS A HUGE PUNCH… TO CREATE SUCH AN IMPACT ON A VIEWER IN ONLY SEVEN MINUTES WITH JUST ONE MAN, A SCRIPT AND A CAMERA CERTAINLY SPEAKS VOLUMES OF THE SKILLS THAT CHAN HAS AS A DIRECTOR, WRITER AND PERFORMER.”

Festival de Cortos y Salud Mental is a program of ASAENES Salud Mental Sevilla, originally founded in 1987 as Asociación de Allegados de Enfermos Esquizofrénicos (Association of Relatives of the Schizophrenic Patients). The organziation is committed and dedicated to families, professionals, volunteers and people with mental illness, working to move from a reality marked by stigma, exclusion, and charity, to another where people with mental illness are accepted by society and have services and resources that are essential for their quality of life.

Festival de Cortos y Salud Mental is sponsored by los Hospitales Universitarios Virgen Macarena y Virgen del Rocío, AGS Sur Sevilla, la Universidad de Sevilla, FAISEM, la Escuela Andaluza de Salud Pública y el Programa de Salud Mental de la Junta de Andalucía, among others.