晩晩当際際夊消消夊2023s award winning Cinema and Media Arts department produces a student led and created film each year deemed the 晩晩当際際夊消消夊2023 film. This year, the 晩晩当際際夊消消夊2023 film told a life-changing story reflecting on the affects of a stillbirth on a marriage.

晩晩当際際夊消消夊2023s student newspaper, , reports the full story:

Bringing to light a subject that has been hushed for too long, Still will inevitably uncover wounds that were never healed.

This semesters 晩晩当際際夊消消夊2023 film, Still, focuses on the darkness and difficultly in our lives and is a reminder of our own lack of understanding in how to cope with the curveballs of life that can seem so unbearable.

The film shows the destruction and despair pressed upon those who have experienced the stillbirth of a child and the heaviness that is laid upon their shoulders like a cloak they cannot rid themselves of.

But in the midst of the pressing sorrow, Still is a story of hope. It is a story of healing between a couple that has been dragged through a valley of grief and torment, but also the power of love in their marriage.

The emotions that come from Still is like kneading your emotional dough, making you feel something you never thought you could feel, said co-producer Brandon Marx. It gives you the emotions of going through a stillbirth without actually having to go through it.

Illustrating the reality of mourning in its lack of dialog, the 14-minute film opens with a scene of the husband, Jamie, holding his breath underwater in a tub. Both writer, alumnus Kyle Gilbertson (09), and director, senior Felicia Heykoop, felt strongly, for separate reasons, that this is the most memorable and powerful part of the story.

What we talked about before, preparing for that scene and doing it together; I think it really really hit me right there, Heykoop said. And that was probably the hardest day on the set.

He just sits there for a long time and when I wrote it, that was the strongest scene in my head, Gilbertson said. That, I think, speaks to the whole idea of the film.

That idea is, universally, the theme of grief and suffering. Though most people have not gone specifically through the torment of a stillbirth of their child, all can understand Jamie and his wife Dessies desperate lack of hope, pain and seclusion.

I connected with Jamie's inability to change or fix what's happening around him and his isolation and, most of all, his loneliness, said main actor Ben Lepley. That's what's at his core. It was a life-changing experience. Contributing to something like this is hard to explain. You have to be so raw and vulnerable with all these people, you cant help but let it change you. I took myself through the anger and sadness of my character, but there is also a lot of joy and happiness with the crew. So it becomes this whirlwind of emotions in such a brief period of time that you cant help but be a different person by the time its over.

Taking place almost entirely in a single bathroom, Jamie and Dessie enter into a seemingly endless roller coaster ride of grief and take their first steps onto their road of recovery.

Theres a certain sense of safety in a bathroom, Gilbertson said. Its closed in so that no one can invade, kind of taking on this idea of the womb; a safe place where no one can touch you; where you dont have to worry about anything.

Although Still has been chosen as the 晩晩当際際夊消消夊2023 film for interterm 2010, Heykoops decision to direct this film was sparked by a much deeper passion.

It wasnt about me getting the credits so much as I felt really deeply convicted that this movie needed to be made.

Not only is the film about the devastation of a couple, but its also about the difficulties and trials that are faced in every marriage.

It was hard to see this kind of manifestation you are trying to achieve of something that is very real and very scary and has torn apart a lot of families, she said.

Heykoops desire to communicate to the public about the unspeakable and hidden things in life became apparent in the work she put into directing Still.

I wanted to do a film that delivered a dose of reality, she said. Marriage is really hard, and no one talks about that.

Beyond the death of their baby, Still is ultimately a story of real life.

Still premiered at Cinema Fusion in the Anaheim Garden Walk on Thursday, May 6 at 7 p.m.

Written by Caitlin Ryan, Chimes Reporter for 晩晩当際際夊消消夊2023s student newspaper,.

For more information, contact Jenna Bartlo, Media Relations Coordinator. Jenna can be reached at (562) 777-4061 or through email at jenna.l.bartlo@biola.edu.