A film created by Joshua Wenner, 34 year old veteran, coach and entrepreneur who loses his little brother Jeffrey to a heroin overdose. Joshua goes on a journey of interviewing experts on grief and trauma and applying to go from being emotionally shut down and rigid to being able to feel his grief and come back to life again. He then turns his pain into purpose by helping men, veterans & first responders to heal their grief and trauma.
THE FILM
After a decision leads to his brother’s overdose,
Joshua grapples with years of guilt and confusion.
Determined to understand the pain that has engulfed his family,
he sets out to uncover the true meaning of grief.
What follows is a decade interviewing grief and trauma experts,
seeking healing for himself and others.
The Gift of Grief explores what it means to grieve, how families cope,
and the unexpected gift that can emerge from life’s most painful moments.
It underscores the vital need to understand and embrace grief in modern society,
offering a pathway to healing and resilience.
Cinema can be a powerful force for change.
Our aim is, beyond mere education, to truly move hearts and minds and inspire audiences to feel safer to feel their grief so they can free themselves from past hurt & pain
so they can love again fully.
The film is our modest contribution towards our dream to create a more grief informed world where we realize almost all of our problems in our current society are due to unaddressed past grief.
We hope this film touches your heart,
evokes healing and understanding and ultimately creates more love in the world.
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✨
✨YOU ARE INVITED✨
TO A VERY SPECIAL VIRTUAL FILM SCREENING of
'THE GIFT OF GRIEF' ON DEC 27th 2024!
JOSHUA WILL BE PRESENT
WITH US FOR AN ARTIST
TALKBACK AND Q&A!
COME JOIN US TO BE INSPIRED
AT THIS FREE SCREENING!
HOSTED BY THE GRACE COLLECTIVE
AND IS OPEN TO FAMILY, FRIENDS, COMMUNITY AND THE PUBLIC!
THERE ARE ALSO SO MANY GUEST EXPERTS
INTERVIEWED IN THE FILLM WHO
SHARE THEIR WISDOM..
INCLUDING...
SYNOPSIS
Our natural response to loss is heartbreak and we express this
through grief. Although we all enter this world grieving, our schools,
work environments, communities, and families rarely teach us how to
process our losses. We learn that mourning is wrong—which leads us to
numb, avoid, and suppress our heartbreak.
One in five Americans is diagnosed with mental illness in any given year [1].
Suicide is the second most common cause of death in the US for youth
aged 15-24 [2], and kills over 800,000 people a year globally [3] and
48,300 in the USA [4]. Drug overdose kills 81,000 in the USA annually
[5]. The autoimmune epidemic affects 24 million people in the USA [6].
What is happening in our world?
Could this surge in mental health issues, suicide, and addiction be rooted in unprocessed grief? Are our addictions an attempt to suppress our sadness? Or is it possible
that we mistake sorrow for depression?Joshua Wenner's intention behind producing this film is to inspire an active movement toward a grief and trauma-informed society.
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THE VISION
Joshua Wenner's intention behind producing this film is to inspire an active movement toward a grief and trauma-informed society.
A society where...
We recognize
the prevalence of grief among all of us
We learn
to notice and feel the grief as a gift in ourselves
We acknowledge
that whenever we have an emotional reaction, an old wound is being triggered
We understand
the imprint of unprocessed grief or trauma on our behaviors and its impact on our relationships
We recognize and witness
the pain, grief, or sadness in others versus trying to fix or take away their pain
We learn to observe and allow
our own sadness and sorrow without having to fix or take it away
We support connection and compassion
as the foundations of safety