Don't Change The Subject
   Movie coming in Winter 2012










Letter To Survivors

My name is Mike Stutz and I'm the director of Don't Change the Subject.

My mother killed herself three days before my twelfth birthday and I was the one who found her and tried to revive her. My stepmother found her father three days before her birthday and held his head in the car on the way to the hospital after he had shot himself. She and I never talked about it when I was a kid. So last year, as she was dying of cancer, she and I decided I should make a movie that would draw as much attention to the subject as possible. I gathered together all sorts of folks from all different backgrounds, survivors, people who had attempted, creative artists of all different kinds, and asked them how they would approach it. As a comedy writer myself I had always taken my own experience and translated into the language I knew, comedy. I guess what I'm trying to do with the movie is to say "okay if you won't have a conversation about suicide how else can we approach it?" Maybe dance? Maybe theater? Maybe for some weird, dark souls like myself, even comedy.

We're reaching out beyond the suicide community for college kids, twenty-somethings, anyone who thinks they aren't a part of the community even if they themselves may have suicidal thoughts all the time or may have even had someone they know die at their own hand. It's amazing just how silent the media and general public are about the subject. There are quiet cliches thrown around but very rarely will the media go beyond that to dig into the how, what, why of the subject and actually try to help educate people about how to deal with it themselves or with friends or family.

Now in reaching out with more provocative, non-traditional material we do risk offending or distressing some in the suicide community. That's the last thing I want to do to be sure. I absolutely understand there are folks who just aren't going to be enthused at all about a movie like this. But I truly in my heart feel that there are also those folks out there, like me when I was younger, who would really benefit from this conversation and wouldn't be a part of it if it were handled in a more traditional way.

I never want to cause any survivor any trouble with my work. I wish you nothing but good feelings and recovery. Please know that though it's very possible I may be misguided in my view, I did this film to reach out, to spur conversation (even if that's disagreement) and to help people end the terrible tragedy that is suicide.

Mike Stutz
Director
Don't Change the Subject      




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Contact us about Don't Change The Subject ... mikestutz (at) dontchangethesubject (dot) org