A Poet in a Mad World: The Sunrise Project

Beautiful cloudscape over the sea, sunrise shot
I’m Cam, the filmmaker who attended the MAD World Summit 2022 alongside Tom Roberts AKA Tomfoolery. It was our first time attending the conference. After contacting the team in advance, Tom was asked to write and perform a particularly special poem to open the event.
“I wanted to gain equilibrium with the wind”. Theses were the words that inspired Tom’s poem, “The Real Author” after a close friend of his had spoken them to him after standing over the railings of a 6th-floor balcony, amidst the pain of a depression and delirium.
Many of us are familiar with the tragic heartbreak of suicide and Tom’s words not only communicated his friend’s emotions but they touched the hearts of attendees who may have shared similar experiences in their lives. The poem sought to paint the picture of a post-suicide world, one in which we came together to support one another and were able to conquer this devastating cycle. You can watch his performance here:

The Sunrise Film Project

But it isn’t all poetry. Tom and I are filmmakers, motivated to move the emotions of our audiences in the hope that they’ll connect with the narrative and extract lessons in the necessity of communication from our story.
We are currently in the production of a short film called Sunrise. It’s the story of a cold-calling scam artist that saves the life of his suicidal victim. It’s the patience and listening skills of our protagonist that allow the unlikeliest of individuals to perform the heroic act of listening in order to save a life.
Tragically, in February this year, whilst building the set for our film, this story became much too real, after my ex-girlfriend Sarah, lost her battle with depression and took her own life.
You can watch our set build, here:

We’re not only committed to sharing the message of patience and listening with the world but we also want to host events in partnership with organisations like MAD World to bring together therapists, coaches and creatives to ensure the lessons learnt are passed on through emotion and storytelling.
If anyone is interested in making a donation to the project or simply sharing their story then please get in touch with us. We hope this project can play a small part in bringing about a culture of listening that could prevent more tragic loss in the future.
Thank you for reading!
You can contact Cam at [email protected]

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