Trauma Research Foundation Hosts 3rd Annual Film

The Trauma Research Foundation (TRF) will kickstart the third edition of its annual film festival virtually on November 15 – 19, 2022.

This third edition of the festival will screen six films over a period of four days that explore the process of healing from trauma via diverse sources and perspectives.

Films scheduled to screen at the festival include: Patrick J. Toole’s Speak What We Feel “a rock concert of Shakespeare that features hundreds of high schoolers who are taking on Shakespeare’s plays at a festival and unfolding their own stories in the process”. Their experiences and the resulting four-day community performances is narrated by Kevin G. Coleman, and screening on November 15.

This Might Hurt, screens on November 16. The Kent Bassett & Marion Cunningham documentary which focuses on how to reduce and unlearn chronic pain follows three chronic pain patients who following years of quest for answers enters a new medical programme by Dr Howard Schubiner that uncovers the hidden causes of their pain, and the retraining of their brain to switch off the pain.

Does this really work?

Screening on November 18 is From Shock to Awe. The film details the intimate and raw transformational journey of two combat veterans, Matt Kahl and Mike Cooley who suffer from severe trauma as they abandon pharmaceuticals to seek relief through mind-expanding world of psychedelics. Beyond examining the scientific research that psychedelics can be used to heal Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), From Shock to Awe further raises fundamental questions about war, the pharmaceutical industry, and the US legal system.

Screening on the last day November 19 are: The Wound Is Where The Light Enters, and Being Michelle. Created by Vardo Films’ Dheeraj Akolkar The Wound Is Where The Light Enters focuses on a dance documentary project entitled Otino Onywalo Ilum. Otino Onywalo Ilum explores the experiences of children born of war, the stigma they face in their daily living as well as the many roads to their empowerment. While Being Michelle is an award-winning feature length documentary film that centers around an autistic, deaf woman who survived incarceration and abuse, now using her artwork to depict the trauma she survived and healed from her past.

Live question and answer sessions will succeed each screening, featuring key members of the film and experts in the field of trauma. The films will be screened at scheduled times during the festival; however, all films will be available for viewing until November 20, 2022.

Beyond participation as audience, viewers are encouraged to engage more interactively on the platform  by voting for the Audience Choice Award whereby the winner receives a $1000 donation to the qualifying organization of their choice.

While the event is free to attend, participants are urged to support filmmakers and their causes which also aligns with the TRF’s projects.