WE HAVE NOW REACHED OUR TARGET. PLEASE DON'T LET THIS STOP YOU FROM DONATING, WE STILL HAVE ANOTHER £80,000 TO RAISE TO COMPLETE THIS FILM. THIS £2000 IS OUR FIRST SMALL TARGET. PLEASE STILL SUPPORT US. THANKS!
Still Born, Still Loved : The Life Within Us
This is a feature length documentary looking at parent's journey's from the heartbreak of stillbirth, to acceptance, moving forward with their lives, and finding happiness and a joy in living.
How do you carry on when the baby you’ve been waiting months for dies before you had the chance to ever really know her? When on the day you were supposed to be bringing your baby home, you have to carry a tiny coffin and see him buried in the cold ground? What happens to all the love you feel for your child? How do you move forward with your life with a heavy heart and empty arms?
This documentary goes right to the heart of the human suffering caused by the death of a tiny baby. There is no greater suffering for any parent to bear than the loss of their child. We will tell the parents’ own stories, using their own photographs and video footage of the only precious hours or sometimes days they will ever have with their child.
Our film is special because each of the stories within it has a powerful, life-affirming message, as the parents involved work through their suffering to accomplish something really spectacular in memory of their baby. Despite the tragedy in the film, the outcome will be uplifting and inspiring, and will highlight how even the most vulnerable of people can shine in the face of adversity.
Our challenge is to find the light within the darkness. To show the humanity and humour that enables the parents, and our audience, to find their way through this sorrow to a place of acceptance, happiness, laughter and a joy of living.
The Creative Team
The Writer/Director is Debbie Howard of Big Buddha Films, an independent film company in Sheffield, UK. Debbie has made a slate of award winning powerful, thought provoking films in the past. You can see all of their info on their website: www.bigbuddhafilms.co.uk
"After completing Peekaboo, I felt very strongly that there was so much more to say on this subject. I felt that these parents should speak for themselves. This subject matter is not popular, but these stories must be told so that people understand what happens to someone when their baby dies. I feel utterly compelled to make this film and break the silence around baby loss. This is my mission."
Debbie Howard
"A wonderfully tender and compassionate articulation of love and loss. Peekaboo unwraps the layers of grief and emotional reconciliation with heart breaking precision and sensitivity."
Caroline Cooper Charles, Creative England
See the trailer for Peekaboo here
The Producer is Colin Pons of Studio of the North has worked in the UK film and TV industry over the last twenty five years. Amongst the 26 feature films Produced, Executive Produced or Mentored are the BAFTA winning “This Little Life” (Director Sarah Gavron ) and the much acclaimed “Acid House” (Director Paul McGuigan), “The Darkest Light” (Directors Simon Beaufoy and Bille Eltringham), “HUSH” (Director Mark Tonderai) “iLL Manors” (Director Ben Drew) and feature documentary “Zoned In” (Director Daniela Zanzotto) which won the Tribeca audience award for documentary. Short films include BAFTA winners “Shadowscan” (Director Tinge Krishnan), “My Wrongs # 8245-8249 & 117” (Director Chris Morris) and the much acclaimed “Kissed By Angels” (documentary Director Daniela Zanzotto), Hands Solo (Director William Mager) and Cannes nominated “Better or Worse” (Director Jocelyn Cammack).
Our Associate and Advisor is Hussain Currimbhoy, Programer of the prestigious Sheffield Documentary Festival, one of the top three international documentary festivals in the world. Hussain Currimbhoy was born in Canada and moved to Australia in the 1990s. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Western Australia before completing a Masters degree in Film at the Victorian College of Arts in Melbourne in 2002. Since 2003 Hussain worked in programming for the Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide Film Festivals and ran his own short film festival in Australia. In 2008, Hussain moved to the UK and became Programmer for the Sheffield Doc/Fest.
Christine Bell - Executive Producer, Vanessa Thatcher & Alice Jolly - Associate Producers - 3 of our very kind sponsors.
What we need to raise financially
We have raised £7,000 so far. We need to raise another £50,000 - £60,000 to complete this film. We wil be doing this in stages. We have a target of £2,000 for this pitch, so that we can reach our target and get shooting. But any addition money will be going to towards the total amount needed to complete our film. Please help us to do this. We are offering some great things in return, see the rewards on offer.
Tribute
"Thank you for what you are doing. When I lost my little girl, I had no idea that losing my child in the way I did was even possible - not really. It wasn't mentioned, there was no warning. And then to go on to find out how common it really is really frustrated me. Awareness needs to be brought to this topic. Something needs to change.
I look forward to tracking the progress of your project. Strength and light to you as you embark on exploring one of the most cruel losses. And thank you again for taking it on."
With love, Cath Adelbert, Sydney, Australia
Please join us on Facebook:
Big Buddha on Facebook:
http://www.bigbuddhafilms.co.uk
Peekaboo on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/bigbuddhafilms
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/#!/BigBuddhaFilms
I am absolutely delighted to say that we have completed Phase One of our shoot for Still Born, Still Loved. We have shot for ten days. We covered a weekend with Stephen and Bethany Morris before they set off on the Born Silently Cycle Challenge, interviewing them about the tragic loss of their twin girls, Felicity and Harriet. We then filmed almost all of the the Cycle Challenge, travelling 325 miles from Crowborough in East Sussex to Northallerton in Yorkshire, and raising money for Tommy's and TAMBA baby charities as they went. This was an amazing week, very inspirational and a huge emotional and physical challenge for Beth and Steve, and their fellow team mates. They have raised over £20,000 for charities during this ride. We filmed from the back of several motorbikes and across the Humber Bridge, country lanes, busy roads and the emotional finishing point greeted by friends and family from around hte country.
We then travelled to Somerset and have filmed our first two days with Mel and Baz Scott and their daughter Toni. Mel is the author of the beautiful book, After Finley. We have been finding out about Mel and Baz's journey to dealing the loss of their son Finley three years ago now. Mel is an inspiring therepist who is working hard to make baby loss a little easier for other parents to cope with.
We have spent all of our the money raised so far on this filming, as we had the equipment to buy and we have covered around 5,000 miles already in travel. This has all been done on a shoe string to make our budget go as far as possible.
Filming this has been very powerful and more than ever we are determined to continue filming the rest of this very necessary documentary. To do this, we need to raise more money. Although we have passed our official target on here, we still have so much to raise.
We have 14 days left of this pitch and it would be fantastic if we could get to £3,000 by that time. Please help us by donating, spreading the word and sharing the link with friends. Every pound donated goes into the film and helps us to continue our work which will raise awareness and break the silence around baby loss. Please help us today.
Thanks
We completed day one of our shoot for Still Born, Still Loved yesterday. We travelled down to East Sussex on Saturday night, and early Sunday morning our DoP Emma Dalesman, Sound Recordist Grant Bridgeman and I arrived at Bethany and Stephen Morris's house. Bethany and Stephen made us so welcome, offering us breakfast, lunch and home baked cakes throughout the day. And it was fantastic to meet their beautiful dog Mr Darcy, who is regal indeed!
The shoot was difficult emotionally and very draining for Stephen and Bethany, who were amazing and so open hearted, sharing with us their story of how they lost their twin daughters Harriet and Felicity. It was hard for them to go through all the pain again, especially as it still so raw, only being four months since their girls were stillborn. Thanks so much to both of them for being so open and sharing so much with us. They also showed us the girl's nursery and all their presents, cards and keepsakes. Bethany very bravely read some diaries she's kept to the girls. There were many tears, and not just from Bethany and Stephen. Although this was hard, it will be powerful stuff indeed for our film, and so we all felt it had been worth it to make a film that will make a huge difference to so many people.
In a week's time Stephen and Bethany and the Born Silently team will undergo a 325 mile cycle challenge in memory of their girls, and to raise money for Tommy's and TAMBA baby charities. We will be following the on this journey and wish them well! You can see full details of their journey and sponsor them here: http://bornsilently.blogspot.co.uk/
Bethany and Stephen are a truly inspirational couple, who have focused all their grief and energy on doing something spectacular for their girls as a way of channelling their love for them.
Thanks so much to them, our crew and our sponsors for getting to to this stage.
We still have so much more to film, please support us to carry on doing this fantastic work, making a difference and raising awareness about baby loss.
Thanks
We begin our shoot tomorrow! It's very exciting. Today we're getting all the last things ready, checking our kit and driving down to East Sussex. Tomorrow we will film one day with Bethany and Stephen Morris who lost their twin daughters Felicity and Harriet earlier this year. Next week they will be beginning their cycle challenge going from East Sussex to North Yorkshire to raise money for baby charities. We will film this journey. We're very excited our shoot is finally beginning. The first of many days. Thanks to everyone that has sponsored us so far and got us this far along the way. You're all fantastic!
We've hit our target today and I'm delighted! Thanks so much everyone that has donated. This is great.
Any new sponsors though - please do still donate. The cost of entire film means we still have around another £80,000 to raise, so every single donation will still be used to completing the film.
Thanks everyone. You're all kind and wonderful xx
We're at 99% of our goal. One more donation gets us over our target!!!
Thank you to everyone that has donated, you're all amazing!
I'm delighted to say that we've had loads of professional, experienced bikers off to help us with our first phase of our shoot when we follow the Born Silently Cycle Challenge on their journey from East Sussex to North Yorkshire. Thanks so much. We're lookig foward to the ride! Just a helicopter to find next ..... we're working on it!
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