We’re there!!
We are so very pleased to announce that after a two year production period, a ten week filming trip, over 5000 miles on the road, 80 hours of footage and a year in the edit, our feature documentary A LOVE THAT NEVER DIES will have its first public screening as part of the Stroud Film Festival on March 16th.
The film has, in the past year, gone through a number of transmutations as we have tried to construct an account of grief that is both uplifting and joyful but equally doesn’t shy away from the pain that all bereaved parents and families will know.
A ROAD TRIP IN HONOUR OF JOSH
We met and filmed with 13 separate families on our journey across the USA and Mexico and we now have a 75 minute film that we hope will resonate with all know about this place called grief, especially grief for a child. We hope that it will give comfort and support as well as validation and encouragement in the knowledge that you are not alone.
In the end we have included in the documentary just six of the stories we filmed but we will be compiling clips of the all families we visited and you will be able to view these on the YOUR STORIES page of this website. (We’ve done six so far so another six to go but we also have some very interesting interviews from experts in the field of trauma and loss – so stay tuned)
So before we go on, we’d like to thank all those who have helped us get this film to you and most importantly all those who we met on our travels, who opened their hearts to us and shared their stories. They may have been willing to do this for many reasons but as we know and they know, it will be the value of being able to talk openly about their pain and the example this sets which will have provided the main motivation. We won’t talk too much about the bravery and courage they have showed (these are there in spades) as their participation in the project actually answers to a basic need that we all have – to find support and understanding from the very act of telling our story to those who are ready to listen.
For those who are new to our work we are firmly of the belief that everyone will grieve in their own way but we also know that there is, sadly, a culture of fear which permeates conversations with those that are dying and those that are grieving.
We have ourselves met with comments such as ‘who in their right mind would want to watch a film about such a dark subject’. And while people may flock to see cinematic and tv dramas that have death and/or grief as their subject matter (we’re thinking of the recently released Manchester on Sea – a beautifully told film) the real life stuff is harder to stomach … apparently.
A LOVE THAT NEVER DIES is a personal film and our own story of grief is very much a part of it. It has been hard to make and it will for some be hard to watch, but the testimonies of all who contributed are important and need to be seen if only because they shed light on some of the essentials of what it means to be human – that pain and loss are not optional, that we all will or have experienced the death of a loved one and that we all grieve in one way or another for something or another. What we don’t learn at school, and what our parents don’t teach us is how to deal with grief – how to face up to it – how to embrace it and how to find and give support to those in the middle of it.
We hope that the stories we tell in A LOVE THAT NEVER DIES can offer some insight into this business of grieving.
Thanks for reading
Jimmy and Jane
PS please note that after selling out at the VUE Cinema we have managed to negotiate a move to Screen One with 214 seats – but these are going fast so book now if you don’t want to be disappointed.
