By Stephanie Froese

Impact of indie film raises discussion

Dec 27, 2010 | 10:31 AM

To Save A Life, an independent film that aims to tackle issues such as teen suicide, is set to play at the Rawlinson Centre in Prince Albert in the New Year.

There have been some concerns raised over how people will be affected by the films message.
Doug Kinar, executive director for the Prince Albert branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association, said the concern isn’t a bad thing.

“It’s a very powerful movie and because To Save A Life organization is wanting to show it at the Rawlinson Centre we just want to make sure that all the people who are watching it, if they are impacted as much as some people have been, that we have the resources in place to help them. If they need help,” Kinar said.

He has watched the movie himself and said it’s a very powerful, and well done, movie.

“It deals with a lot of topics that are near and dear to people in general. The topic of teen suicide, teen parenting, bad relationships, all of the different themes that are relevant to today’s modern society are played out in the movie.”

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Kinar wants people who can be there at the time of the viewing, who will be able to listen to anyone who may be dealing with any of these issues. He said just being there is important for people.

“Anyone who has counseling experience would be an asset — just people who are good at listening.

The ones that we’ve trained though our Asist workshops have the tools to deal with someone who has thoughts of suicide.”

During a couple of meetings with the To Save A Life group, Kinar said he has discussed having resource people available and that the group is on board.

“We’ve contacted as many people as we can through the Community Networking Coalition … we’re just trying to put everybody together in one place.”

According to Kinar, the idea behind what they’re trying to do is to start a conversation about the issues people are dealing with. For now they are just trying to get in contact with as many people as they can who would be able to act as a resource person.

To Save A Life will be playing at the Rawlinson Centre on January 15th and 16th, 2011, at 7 p.m.

sfroese@panow.com