Local filmmaker sheds light on the meaning of listening
By Miriam Ostermann, Associate Editor
Photo Courtesy of
Wanda Reinholdt
Reinholdt knew instantly the 35-minute narrative documentary – a fictional story with real-life documentary interviews – needed to focus on listening when producer Rueben Tschetter approached her with the story.
The film has been broadcast for a year and a half and used as a conversation starter and tool in schools and prisons. It was shown at the Central Alberta Film Festival in Red Deer, was chosen for the Reel Recovery Festival in Los Angeles last week and will be viewed in New York at the beginning of November.
The story pulled on Reinholdt’s heartstrings, as her life once depended on the listening skills of those around her.
“I’m not afraid of this story, in fact listening saved my life,” said Reinholdt of Reinholdt Productions. “When I was growing up, mentors and friends really listened to me and saw me for who I was and took me under their wing. If it wasn’t for that, I’m not sure I’d be around anymore. I was really discouraged – deeply discouraged at school – I was bullied at school and at home I didn’t feel heard either.”
In 2015, when six teenagers ended their lives, Red Deer responded positively and invoked change. Through collaboration with municipal government and the Alberta government, the community was able to implement a program called Empathy, a peer-to-peer program that taught students to listen and talk with each other. The program also enlisted the skills of trained facilitators, and had psychologists and psychiatrists work with counsellors and teachers in schools to bring the program to fruition.
Tschetter, a Red Deer documentary filmmaker and producer of Are You Listening? has followed the events for years. He’s heard about the suicide crisis since 2003 and had already started thinking about creating a documentary when he discovered the Empathy program had been scrapped by the NDP government, after a year of showing successful results. He was met with pushback from school boards and government representatives in his efforts to create a documentary, so he reached out to Reinholdt who was willing to take on the project.
“It hasn’t gotten any better, I can tell you that; but the programs are slowly being put into place and I couldn’t tell it in a traditional documentary sense because I kept having doors slammed in my face. I had meetings with school divisions and government leaders and they didn’t want to have anything to do with it,” Tschetter said.
“There’s a stigma around it. Professionals and community leaders have no clue what to do about it. That was the case then and I think it’s still the case now. Our western healthcare system is just not coping with it, science is just not capable of dealing with it and so we’re at a loss as a society about what to do.
“The story is very much about what happened here in Red Deer, but I don’t think that the issue that it tries to tackle is a local issue, I think it’s a human issue.”
The project is supported by interviews from several people, including a local priest, psychiatrists, a professional working in suicide prevention, a member of the legislative assembly, community members and a father of one of the deceased. The interviews reinforce the narrative of fictional character Josie, a mental health advocate who encounters various scenarios where she models listening.
“It’s an important topic and I think it’s important that we learn to listen from one another and help one another,” said Reinholdt. “Often people aren’t looking for an answer, they’re looking for comfort. They’re asking whether they’re crazy or not. I just want people to know they’re human and it’s OK to be hurting and we can help one another.”
Are You Listening? A Pathway to Empathy is available on Telus Optik TV, Telus Optik YouTube and on Reinholdt’s YouTube channel, as well as on DVDs that are travelling to the different film festivals. Although the film has not yet been used as a tool within Strathmore, various local agency leaders have expressed interested.