Little Stars Impact Film: After years in the making, it feels like finally, the real work can begin!

It’s exciting times for the Little Stars Impact Film impact film project. We’ve just had our first screening at the Massachusetts Independent Film Festival. A fitting location as LeeAnne who features in the film was from Boston. Sadly she succumbed to Cystic Fibrosis late last year, so to be able to screen the film for her family, friends and palliative care team was such a great outcome, made even better after hearing the film was received with warmth and enthusiasm and that her husband was glad to have been able to see it.

Over the next week we’ll be receiving the first batch of the DVD’s in time to get them out for the World Hospice and Palliative Care Day hosted screenings. The volunteers who made an amazing effort to translate the film into 13 languages have already provided some incredible feedback. Translating the film into Igbo language had a surprising result. Many English words have no Igbo alternatives. So it was a first for the term ‘Palliative Care’ to get into the Igbo language sphere as ‘paliativu’ it previously did not exist! Grass routes outreach doesn’t get much better than that.

Later this week we screen the film at 13th Australian Palliative Care Conference in Melbourne and Simon Waring whose family story also features in the film will be there to speak, hopefully he will feel as positive about the screening as LeeAnne’s husband Jeff.

We’ve moved into the final stage and released almost all of the short films and the feature is about to be seen across countries far and wide. For a filmmaker the payoff from years of work is having an audience see the film. But actually it feels like finally, the real work can begin – to use the films to effect change. However, the films themselves can only do so much, it’s the tireless work of those in palliative care; practitioners, patients and their families advocating and demanding services that will really make the difference, and the Little Stars films are a tool we can give them to help amplify the message.

Ghandi said ‘In a gentle way you can shake the world’ and I think this is what the films do, perhaps not the world, but they gently shake the audience.

And this is where you come in, please help us to spread these stories, share them on social media, host a screening or purchase a DVD and watch it with your friends, this is how people will learn about Little Stars and the understanding of children’s palliative care can spread. I look forward to hearing more about people’s experiences with the Little Stars films so please leave comments or get in touch.