by Abhi Parasher
Craig Hamilton’s mental health journey, detailed in his book Broken Open, has laid the foundation for Jye Currie’s new documentary, The Promise, which dives into the sports broadcaster’s struggles with mental health, while also continuing a conversation around suicide prevention in Australia.
“Craig’s story takes place at a train station, which is the first chapter of The Promise. From there, we tell Craig’s story, but also open it up to talk about the wider topic of suicide prevention,” Jye Currie tells FilmInk. “We’ve got interviews with people like Wayne Bennett and Tim Tszyu and leading researchers in the field. There are also personal stories from people who have lost loved ones to suicide. We opened it up to be a conversation around suicide prevention through Craig’s story.”
Both Currie and Hamilton are Newcastle natives, and it is there that the filmmaker came across the story.
“I realised that not many people were talking about suicide prevention the way Craig was,” shares Currie. “A big thing I heard from Craig, was that no one was talking about it at all. I did some research in the film area and found that there weren’t many films made about suicide and suicide prevention. There were a handful of documentaries that were hard to get access to, but it was hard to find any documentaries where people were talking about their own stories around suicide, both from people who were suicidal and people who had loved ones who suffered from suicidal thoughts.”
Mental health is something we all contend with from time to time, and according to Currie, that is something that is not going to change in the near future.
“Unfortunately, mental health is an issue that is still going to be around 100 years from now. It doesn’t matter what time we are in; mental illness will always be something that can impact anyone. Just like you could break your leg anytime, mental illness can impact you anytime. That is what is so important about this film. It doesn’t matter when anyone watches it, it will always be relevant. People will be able to take the lessons from this film and apply it in their time of need.”
The Promise also examines the impact of mental health on men, especially the aversion to discussing illness.
“We try to break down a barrier for men in the film. We discuss how, as a man, you are allowed to be strong, protective, and capable, but there is a fine line between still being that and becoming overly self-reliant and eventually suicidal,” says Currie. “There needs to be a balance, where men are resilient, but also focus on having a healthy relationship with their mental health, where they can talk about that openly and not feel weak.”
The Promise is about to embark on a Q+A screening tour, which will take it around Australia. “We travelled across Australia while filming this, so we got to engage with a variety of people. We’re going to take it around Australia to these people and all profits will be donated to Lifeline. We’re completely committed to the cause that began this journey, which is suicide prevention, and we know the film will do what it needs to do and reach the people it needs to reach.”
The Promise has also reached the voting round in this year’s AACTA awards.
For more information and for the screening schedule, visit greenfrogproductions.com
