Stand up comedians have come together to shine a light on the importance of sharing our struggles in a new Tribeca-lauded feature length ‘docu-therapy’ on mental health.

The film, which has been co-produced by AXA and Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat, in collaboration with WPP, is a love letter to comedy. The film focuses on the power of humour to help people open up and connect with one another.

Released on Amazon Prime, Group Therapy brings together six stand-up comedians who take part in candid but humorous conversations where they share their professional comedy journeys and how they overcame their mental health struggles. While each cast member has a different story, the group is united in their experience of having experienced mental health struggles.

The group therapy session is chaired by Neil Patrick Harris who guides comics, Tig Notaro, Nicole Byer, Mike Birbiglia, London Hughes, Gary Gulman and Atsuko Okatsuka through a session in front of a live audience. Birbiglia discusses his struggles with sleep disorders and anxiety, Gulman shares his life-long battle with depression, while Byer reflects on her experiences with grief and grappling with body image.

Following its premiere at Tribeca Film Festival, Group Therapy has been well received at a variety of global film festivals, including The American Film Institute Festival, Palm Springs International Film Festival and GlobeDocs Documentary Film Festival.

The docu-series aims to be more than just entertainment, at a time when almost one-third of the global population is experiencing a mental health condition, Group Therapy aims to encourage conversations about mental health. The film is backed by a worldwide mental health risk prevention initiative from AXA.

“This documentary was born out of a massive international survey we commissioned on mental health. We wanted to find out what sort of challenges people were facing, and the results were alarming. The first step to dealing with mental health problems is to start talking about it with your family, your friends, your co-workers. Sharing is therapeutic,” says Virginie Berçot, global brand director, AXA.

Ahead of the film’s release on Prime Video, AXA created a series of short video teasers and static banners to run across Prime Video, Twitch, Fire TV and on paid social media including Meta. 

The campaign aims to drive audiences to AXA’s mental health initiatives on a dedicated ‘Mind Health’ landing page which contains footage and punchlines from the Group Therapy documentary, alongside a series of real-life scenarios where therapeutic sharing can happen.

Using comedy and entertainment to tackle tough issues head-on, Group Therapy underlines the power of long-form content in helping facilitate real-world conversations and sparking change.