Just a Farmer: Shining a light on farmer mental health

This film maker’s experience growing up in regional NSW is informing her new film centred on farming in the face of adversity.

Filmmaker Leila McDougall on her family's farm at Tatyoon. Picture: Nicole Cleary

It’s always been tough to be in agriculture – and with the increased pressures of input costs, chasing fair farmgate prices, and battling natural disaster, farmer mental health is in the frame like never before.

It’s a topic that’s the focus of the upcoming film Just a Farmer, which centres on the resilience of farmers, their partners, and community in the face of adversity.

Writer and producer Leila McDougall said her film was inspired by her own childhood in regional NSW and her family’s experiences.

“My dad suffered severely from depression … growing up, I saw how he had to deal with the stigma, he hid it most of his life,” Leila said.

“ … It’s an issue. And the lack of services, trying to get help even just for a bad back, it has a flow-on effect for your mental health.“Alcoholism in country communities is quite prolific. And also the appreciation for farmers in general and the work they’re doing … it’s getting harder to be a farmer. That raises the question – who’s going to be our next generation of farmers?”

Leila, who also appears in the film, hopes both country and city audiences will watch and start having important conversations about the toll of farmer mental health.

“Hopefully it opens that can of worms, and gets people asking a lot of questions,” Leila said.

“Especially for the regional audience, they’ll see the importance of talking. And for our metro community, we hope they’ll start asking questions about why the people who are producing their food feel like this, and build empathy. 


“A farmer isn’t just a farmer, they live there, their children are a part of it, it’s not nine to five, it’s a lifestyle.”

Just A Farmer will premier at cinemas across the country on March 21.