May 2014 – The Oneida County Suicide Prevention Coalition, in partnership with Center for Family Life and Recovery, Inc., will host a free screening of the remarkable film, Here One Day, on Wednesday, May 14, 2014 at SUNYIT (Student Center) at 6:00P.M. Doors open at 5:30P.M. This film was shot by the winner of last year’s Excellence in Cinematography Award at The Sundance Film Festival; is an unsensationalized, beautiful film that paints a captivating, intimate portrait of those left behind after a family member completes suicide. Filmmaker, Kathy Leichter, will be at this event guiding attendees through the showing and speaking about her own personal story; the journey she has gone through to be where she is today.
When filmmaker Kathy Leichter moved back into the apartment she grew up in after her mother completed suicide, she discovered a hidden box of audiotapes. Sixteen years passed before she had the courage to delve into this trove, unearthing details that her mother had recorded about every aspect of her life from the challenges of her marriage to a State Senator, to her son’s estrangement, to her struggles with bi-polar disorder. Playing like a Greek tragedy, Here One Day is a bracing, visually arresting, emotionally candid film about a woman coping with mental illness, her relationships with her family and the ripple effects of her suicide on those she loved.
Told from the point of view of Nina’s daughter, Director Kathy Leichter, and featuring Nina’s husband, son, sister, and grandchildren, Here One Day follows this family from 2004 to 2008 as they attempt to make sense of what happened and go on with their lives.
You will see the universal emotions of guilt, blame, rage, despair, humor and affection that the family experiences. Some family members think they have moved on but haven’t. Some want to move on but can’t. Some, like Nina’s grandchildren, don’t even know the full story. To tell them or not becomes a storyline, as does the role of family secrets, and how people live with loss in very different ways.
As the family reflects back on Nina’s life, this charismatic, mercurial woman comes alive. Her experience of the illness and its effect on others is also vividly portrayed. By film’s end, the family, who goes through struggles, conflicts and resolutions on-screen, is less broken, less traumatized, but still scarred and forever changed.
This event is made possible by the Oneida County Department of Mental Health, and is a collaborative effort with CFLR, Inc. and the Oneida County Suicide Prevention Coalition.
For more information or to register for viewing, contact Samantha Madderom, Prevention, Advocacy and Training Specialist for CFLR, Inc., at (315) 768 – 2677 or smadderom@cflrinc.org
