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'LIVING THROUGH IT' DOCUMENTARY RAISES AWARENESS OF SUICIDE PREVENTION AND SUPPORT OF SURVIVORS | 130 Agency

‘LIVING THROUGH IT’ DOCUMENTARY RAISES AWARENESS OF SUICIDE PREVENTION AND SUPPORT OF SURVIVORS

October 22, 2021

‘LIVING THROUGH IT’ DOCUMENTARY RAISES AWARENESS OF
SUICIDE PREVENTION AND SUPPORT OF SURVIVORS
Award-Winning Doc Short To Be Included in Coronado Island Film Festival;
Entered in 30 More Festivals Nationwide
CORONADO, San Diego County – Oct. 20, 2021 – With two people dying from suicide by jumping from the San Diego-Coronado Bridge every month, Daniel E. Kennedy recently filmed the documentary LIVING THROUGH IT to help prevent suicides, connect survivors of suicide loss to support groups and remove the stigma families face when one of theirs takes their life.
“Silence on suicide costs lives. The first step to preventing suicide is to talk about it,” said Tim Clinton, Ed.D. and president of the American Association of Christian Therapists. “This film, LIVING THROUGH IT, gets the vital conversation started.”
LIVING THROUGH IT is a documentary short about suicide prevention, surviving suicide loss and a community’s call for life-saving solutions. True stories of hope and healing drive the documentary, and a suicide prevention trainer tells people how to get help.
The film unfolds through stories and interviews including:
  • Bertha – At age 3, she survives her mother’s suicide jump from San Diego-Coronado bridge and now helps others prevent suicide and supports survivors of suicide loss.
  • Steve Bouchard – One of the few to survive a suicide jump from the San Diego-Coronado bridge. He now helps people prevent suicide.
  • Senator Ben Hueso – Speaking about his Senate Bill 656 that mandates Caltrans to build a suicide deterrent on the San Diego-Coronado bridge.
  • Michele Madden – A QPR trainer sharing how people contemplating suicide can find help and hope.
“This documentary shares such stories of those who lost someone to suicide or survived a suicide attempt,” Kennedy said. “And it follows effort the cities of Coronado and San Diego are making in persuading CalTrans to build an innovative solution to deter suicide attempts from the bridge.”
LIVING THROUGH IT is gaining international recognition quickly. Since September 2021, it has become an official selection in two film festivals and received the Best Documentary Short awards from the Keiz Berlin Film Festival and the Berlin Flash Film Festival. And it is entered in 30 more festivals now.
Kennedy’s film – while focused on one community – highlights a national problem. According to a 2019 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide was the second leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 10 and 34 and the fourth leading cause of death among those between the ages of 35 and 44. It was the 10th leading cause of death overall in the United States. The 47,500 suicide deaths were nearly 2.5 times more than the 19,150 homicides in the U.S.
“In a hurting world, God’s love and compassion channeled through community organizations can bring healing and training that can prevent suicide and comfort those who have survived a suicide loss,” Kennedy said.
The Coronado Island Film Festival (CIFF) will kick off this year’s festival debuting LIVING THROUGH IT on Nov. 10, at 11 a.m., at Parish Hall, Sacred Heart Church, Coronado, California. Kelly Purvis, Coronado City’s Senior Management Analyst and Director of Arts and Culture, encouraged Kennedy to submit the film to CIFF. The festival and community embraced LIVING THROUGH IT, and it was selected as a special engagement screening followed by a panel of experts on suicide prevention and support of survivors of suicide loss. Among panelists will be Jennifer Lewis, Ph.D., a professor of social work at USC and the author of the book Organizing for Suicide Prevention: A Case Study at the Golden Gate Bridge.
Staying silent on suicide doesn’t make it go away. The first step to prevention is to get informed. We invite you to watch this documentary and hear from experts about suicide prevention and support those who have lost a loved one to suicide. As a community, it is vital that we talk about suicide. LIVING THROUGH IT gets the conversation started. Would you please share this invitation with your loved ones? Get your free tickets here: https://coronadofilmfest.com/events/living-through-it/
For interviews, contact: Michael Conrad | michael@130a.com | 214-616-0320
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
Daniel E. Kennedy is a healthcare executive, counselor, author and filmmaker. His focus is preventative medicine and holistic treatments. This passion was ignited by working with thousands of patients and witnessing cancer and heart disease-related deaths of his grandmother, father, uncle and aunt. He believes it’s not good enough to live a long sick life when you can live a long healthy life. Through writing 12 health books, Daniel honed the skills necessary to create, write and direct the HEALTHY LONG LIFE documentary series available on Amazon Prime. He is a doctoral student in the USC Doctor of Social Work program. He plans to start a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing long and productive lives.