 Welcome to Dare to Dream. This is Debbie Daschinger. This show has been nominated for two People's Choice podcast awards for a Webby Award, and we were just listed in Welp Magazine and as one of the top 20 podcasts to listen to this year. Thank you to Welp Magazine. We really appreciate it. And thanks to my dogs, who second, third that nomination. This show is sponsored by Dr. Dane here and Access Consciousness. They do beautiful energy work out into the world. And if you'd like to check them out, they have products, they have classes, you can become a facilitator. Go to Dr. Dane here, H-E-E-R dot com or access consciousness dot com. I am Debbie Daschinger. I teach business people, coaches and speakers how to write a highly engaging book. I am a book coach and I also take books to a guaranteed international bestseller fully done for the author and the third leg of my visibility hub is showing people, entrepreneurs like yourself, how to get booked on radio and podcasts, how to do an amazing job being interviewed and get massive results. I've got a gift for you today. If you'd like to learn how to do these things and take your business to the next radical level, go ahead and get your free gift. It is templates, it is videos and I give you the 411 how to get there. Debbie Daschinger dot com slash gift. That's D-E-B-B-I-D-A-C-H-I-N-G-E-R dot com slash gift. This episode today on the show is about a disaster, how a community pulled together and the film that was made about resiliency. I have two guests here today and that is executive producer, Charmaine Hammond and the screenwriter of the film, Michael Mankowski and the film's name is Back Home Again, a Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo story, which is a new animated short film promoting conversation and awareness for mental health available now to stream. The Canadian Red Cross, the Canadian Mental Health Association and Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo Economic Development and Tourism joined forces to bring to life Back Home Again, this animated short film with an all-star voice cast and the film aims to build mental health awareness and spark conversations in communities across Canada and across the world. To learn more about the film, go to BackHomeAgainMovie.com and I welcome Charmaine and Michael to Dear to Dream. It's great to have you. Thanks for having us. Pleasure. One of the things that really stood out in that bio about the film is the constant word about awareness for mental health. I have seen statistics since COVID, no less the tragedy that you folks made a movie about and it is clear how important mental health is for people in the support. Can we start there? Will you talk a little bit about that Charmaine? Will you start? Sure. You're exactly right. This really is a story about coming together and the power of community and hope. I was actually living in Fort McMurray, not at the time of the fires, but doing a lot of work with non-profits and organizations. I worked in the mental health industry for years. That was my background. This movie really inspires people to talk about mental health and resilience and the power of what happens when people come together. What's really interesting right now about the time that we're releasing the movie is that all of us have this shared experience around mental health issues and resilience challenges because of the pandemic. So our hope with this movie is that it will inspire people to have conversations, to reach out and connect with each other and to know that it's okay to not be okay all the time. Yeah. It's tough. It's true. It has ups and downs. And yeah, I like that tagline. It's okay to not be okay all the time because the truth is that is the human condition, right? We go through joy and we go through tribulations. And so this film based on a massive evacuation, how did the conversation start, Michael? What inspired you to take a situation that was quite real and then say, we need to build community. We need to look at resiliency. We need to create a film around this. How did that begin? I was given the opportunity to work with the Red Cross during the reentry period as well as the one year and two year anniversary. And during that time, I noticed that I didn't feel my community was properly representative. I did a lot of the community videos and a lot of the footage that was released during around the wildfire as well as the reentry. And I wanted to create a film that, you know, more focused on the mental health and use that as a tool to spark conversations around mental health. So, you know, I recorded over 200 plus testimonials of people affected by the wildfire in and around my community. And ultimately it started there. So I'm very curious. I wanna go a little deeper with this because you brought up this mental health and you brought up that there was maybe not the awareness you had hoped. So you took action there. What specifically around mental health are you talking about? Well, you know, when I went through this experience, I was struggling myself like many people in the community. And I noticed as I was recording people's testimonials of all the problems that I was struggling with didn't seem so significant. I really felt it was a healing process for me. And that was kind of a light bulb moment of like, okay, maybe there's something we can do here and share these stories, you know, it started off just with my community as just a, you know, a local tool. But I think what happened was, you know, as I continued to work on this and eventually Paradise and you noticed other communities were, you know, affected by wildfires as well, this really became a local story with a global message. And there was an opportunity of that shared experience that Charmaine had talked about before. I think, you know, to bring this to a larger stage. And ultimately I just wanted to use this as a tool to get parents and teachers to talk about the fire in a healthy way because I noticed, you know, everyone was sick of the Fort McMurray strong and the resiliency, even that word was, you know, a struggle for a lot of people. So if we can't talk about this in a healthy way, there's no way to heal. So I figured that if I took those stories and rewrote them from the perspective of animals and soften the story with the use of animation instead of talking about losing your house, we're talking about losing your den, you know, it will give us a chance to talk about this in a healthy way. Oh my gosh, that's so clever. I like that you take it off of the onus of the humans who are clearly at some level not willing to talk about a very real ongoing situation and put it in the form of animals so that it can be received and seen and heard. So it takes place with animals and in their den and the possibility of losing their den. Tell us a little bit more, Charmaine, about how it unfolds through the eyes of these woodland creatures. I remember the day actually, when I met Michael the first time, which is almost five years ago now, and he shared how he wanted to tell the story and create conversations around a tough subject, which is mental health, but through the eyes of animals living in the forest and what it would be like for them to lose their home and how the community came together. And the Back Home Again movie really shows a number of vignettes that are actually based on real interviews that Michael had after people had returned from the evacuation. So these are real stories that have been brought together through animation. What's really interesting is Michael and I worked really hard in the, Michael had created the script as beautiful screenplay. And we engaged about 20 different mental health professionals, therapists, psychologists to actually work with us and to work with Michael on kind of the whole creation of what does empathy look like? What do these feelings look like on an animal's face? And so it was so incredible to watch the art that Michael and his team were creating and the emotions that were being displayed on animals. We know what that might look like on people, but to imagine it from animals. So it was incredible. And then the cast, we have such a diverse cast, a voice cast and their voice then matched up with the animal whose character they're voicing just really brought the story to life. And Michael also vetted the screenplay and the movie passed a number of educators knowing that we were going to eventually be having the movie available in school. So a lot of careful work went into the creation of this as the story unfolded in the film that it is today. I can't help but think as I hear you say that, that there must be so many communities that this will resonate with. I live in California, for instance. And as you know, with climate change, there are more and more and more wildfires that are destroying great amounts of beautiful forests and lands and homes and for people and animals. And it's terrible. So I can imagine that there would be not just in Fort McMurray, but also there must be many places even worldwide, Australia, et cetera, who can benefit from this movie. Do you have plans, Michael, to extend it to a reach in other places that may have been affected by the same situation? Yeah, that was definitely my intention early on is to roll this out. Obviously I said, we started off as the local tool, but very quickly realized that there was a need for this in other parts of the, not only the country, but the world. And definitely look to roll this out in California and Australia and Turkey and Russia and all the communities affected by wildfires and to eventually translate this into several languages. We've already started that process with Korea and Denay and French. And we'll look to put that into Spanish and hopefully Russian and really target areas that have wildfires every year. Beautiful. So I wanna go back to this all-star cast, people who donated their time to the production. And I just want to list off some of the names. So folks who are listening or watching have a sense of the level when we say all-star. We're not beefing up the promotion here. This is true. So check out these actors and actresses who donated their time to this amazing production. Jeremy Renner, Martin Short, Kim Bassinger, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Michael J. Fox, Howie Mandel, Ed Asner, Lauren Cardinal, Gordon Pecent, Mena Suvari, Bill Burr, Tom Green, Norm McDonald, Harland Williams, Sherry Shepard, Marlon Wayans, Scott Thompson, and Tentu Cardinal. So, wowza. How did you promote and arrange that? You must have had a heck of a craft table inviting these people to participate so they were fed well, but what was the catch? How did you actually pitch this so that this level of talent consistently said, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, I am in? Yeah, I had a relationship with John Schneider, the producer of this project, previous to the Wildfire, and we're gearing up to make our first, or my first feature film, and that opportunity was taken away. I was evacuated the day of, you know, with the community and I was actually on the land filming with some little grizzly bears getting ready to shoot. And unfortunately that was never happened. And shortly after the Wildfire, John called to check on me and see how I was doing and reach out. And that's actually when I reached out, the actor I was working with before was Tom Green, Canadian icon, and I worshiped Tom growing up. And I was, you know, on a whim, I asked John, would he reach out to Tom and ask if Tom would record a voice? And Tom became the first actor to record for the film. And after that, one by one, we just dreamed of this. Everyone is someone I idolized and, you know, worshiped growing up. And to work with one of these actors was incredible, led to get all 19 is, it's really a dream come true. So we reached out, it took years. You know, slowly we recorded with, you know, started in 2017, recording voices. And, you know, we recorded with Kim Basiner and Michael J. Fox and a lot of the actors, even in 2020. So it took many years to get everyone slowly, one by one, we would approach them and show them the designs and the script. And yeah, everyone came on board. So it was, yeah, dream come true. I was really excited, surprised to find out about the title song called Back Home Again, performed by Jeremy Renner. I did not even know he sang. Did you know he sang? How did that come about with this project? Yeah, I knew he sang. We had two incredible musicians, Grammy award-winning artists, Walter Appanasia and Charlie Midnight. Just unbelievable artists, I would write the original song that Jeremy sings at the end of the movie and Walter scored the film as well and Jeremy's close friend of Walter's and Walter actually, before we had a lot of the actors, he wrote this beautiful song very early on, just when I had a script actually. And with that, we were able to approach Jeremy and show him the song. And yeah, and he was just such a big supporter of this. He even, you know, became a volunteer firefighter afterwards through, you know, this project. And he's giving fire engines away to local communities. So it's... Real fire engines, actual trucks? Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's incredible. They must be so great. He's an amazing guy. Yeah, it was just surreal to get a work with him and to have him jump on. Ford also is a stamp of approval for other people to take it serious. Yeah, it was great. Are they all Canadians? Nope, no, there's, we have quite a few American actors as well and that was intentional. We definitely want, you know, Fort McMurray is a melting pot of people from around the world that come to work in the industry there. So it was a great opportunity to kind of have voices from all over the world. And even so much where, you know, the actors are really doing justice to represent the people of my community like Marlon Waynes and Sherry Shepherd are doing an Angolan accent, you know, to really breathe, you know, authenticity into the characters and some of the cast had the shared experience of being affected by the wildfire. You know, Martin Short was evacuated the day we were recorded with him and Kim Basner was also affected by the wildfire in California and lost her home. So it was just that shared experience again brought in a lot of people into this project. Powerful, really powerful. I'm so happy for you guys that you got that level of commitment and follow through. And I can imagine with your schedules doing a little recording here, a little recording there, you've got someone in post-production piecing everything together. And it's magic when it all works out. Very much so. Yeah. And Charmaine, what about the companies and agencies that supported this animated film back home again? How did you, I imagine as an executive producer you had quite a bit to do with who showed up and how they showed up. So talk about that process. Yeah, you know, relationships have been the key to this project and collaboration and working in partnership together. So some of the first people we reached out to, of course were the Canadian Red Cross who Michael had a longstanding relationship with. And then also the Canadian Mental Health Association and the Canadian Mental Health Association, DMHA have been working closely with us to create mental health resources and tools that we can use. And then we had the Fort McMurray with Buffalo Economic Development and tourism come on board and Paul Davis Restoration in Canada. And Paul Davis has a really neat, interesting, I'm gonna use word interesting, role in disaster recovery because they go into people's homes when there has been a flood or a fire or a natural disaster. So they're seeing people in their most vulnerable moment and certainly see some of the mental health issues that crop up. So all of these key partners are so important in bringing this movie to life. And then there's so many community businesses and champions and organizations that have come on to play different roles in the creation of the movie, the marketing of the movie, the getting it out there. So I think when Michael and I talk about this and Michael refers to this, I love to say this Michael about you. You refer to this as a love letter to your community. And this love letter to the community has just engaged more and more people to help roll it forward. So collaboration has been key. And Michael going through the evacuation when I talked to him, when I first met him, he talked repeatedly about the role of collaboration and people working together to get people out safely, to return home safely. So it really is a key theme. And you see that in the movie too. The sense of relationship you mean? Yeah, yeah, the sense of relationship, the sense of camaraderie in the movie and Michael has done a beautiful job of showing the collaboration and the working together, the characters in the movie. And how did you find it, Michael? These companies, these agencies that came aboard to support this project. They were wonderful to work with. Everyone is someone we specifically, we wanted to work with companies that had the same message as us. And these are companies that I've worked with for many years, Red Cross and Canadian mental health. And even the city of Port McBurney. So it was kind of a no-brainer to partner with these organizations. They're already working on disaster recovery in my community. So it was a really, and same with Paul Davis, they were there since day one, they came up there and started helping us rebuild. So it was just, it was a really easy pick. I'm sure both ways, yeah. And we talked in the beginning about this being in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. And I'm curious beyond the point that you made earlier, which is a good point, it's really important to feel safe enough to talk about things, to feel safe enough to say, I'm not okay right now. I really could use some help and support. And it's really okay to talk about things that are maybe uncomfortable to talk about instead of pushing them away. And then people tend to feel very separate and alienated, which is not helpful in a situation. So in the wake of the pandemic, how does this movie's message promote emotional and mental support? How does it empower people? I'll answer one piece that is important around this. When we think of a movie, Michael created this to be, when we say a conversation starter, really truly a movie that people would watch together. So parents would watch it with their children. People could watch it in a workplace training session or a lunch and learn. Non-profits would come together as community groups to watch it together. And we know that when moms and dads see something like the back home again movie, they bring that conversation back home to drive time and dinner time conversations with their children. And we know that if children see something in school, they go home and tell mom and dad about it. So that was a big part of how do we use this movie to invite conversations? And one of the things that Michael and I have learned from working with a lot of mental health professionals on this project is one of the challenges is sometimes we simply don't know what to say. We just don't know how to start the conversation. So the movie might be the way that safely starts that conversation. And it's also okay to sit together in silence. That is another form of a conversation, just being there for each other. Beautiful. And how about you, Michael? How do you feel that your movie's message promotes this emotional and mental support? And what was the takeaway about empowering people? You know, I definitely hoped through this film to emotionally move you. I really tried not to stray away from the heavy hitting subject matter of this and really showcase what it was like for this community because this isn't as much as a disaster film, but it's the story of rebuilding. And I think the common message here is Sherman touched on this earlier, is it's okay not to be okay. And by watching this and you watch this community go through that and talk about it openly that they are struggling, but together we can rebuild, together we will be better. I think some of these messages apply and will relate to people going through everything, because it's just that message of just watching that and recognizing that it's okay not to be okay, it applies to everything. And hopefully someone else can watch that and take that message away and apply that to their own life or just recognize or maybe be inspired to make art, to help them in their own healthy way, is ultimately my goal. And I just think, as Charmaine said, it's very hard, I've noticed for people to talk about disasters in an open space and everyone just says, I'm okay, how are you doing? I'm okay. So I hope by watching this, this does become the conversation starter and it's a little easier to say, you know what actually, I'm not okay, but that also is okay. Or it's just a little bit easier to get to the next ring on the ladder of healing. I'm sure there are people as they're listening to you both who are thinking, this sounds good. I'd like to see this film. How can people see your film? Where can they go to get it? See it, view it. Right now you can go to YouTube and watch the trailer or you can go to our website and again, back home again, movie. And that is probably the best way. We are hoping to do a rollout throughout California and North America. So we'll continue that run. I'm not sure when we are coming to California but definitely soon. Yeah, so within the new year. Will this be in the theaters? Will it be streaming? Will it be on the network channels? I'm hoping a little bit of both. I think we have a great cast that a lot of them live in Los Angeles. So I think there's great opportunity to promote the message down there. And yeah, so if any big streaming giants are listening to us right now, I'm hoping they reach out and yeah. Beautiful, I hope so too. I am curious, in the very beginning you mentioned that part of how this came about Michael was because you were doing these interviews. You were getting all these testimonies and you got hundreds of them. What are the stories? Can you share some of the stories, some of the unsung heroes, if you will, that you got to spend time with while you were filming any of their stories that you can share with us that you felt were important or moving or very unique? Yeah, well, every story I interviewed someone was extremely emotional. I won't lie, it was a heavy time in the community. And a lot of the characters are a combination of several people. But specifically, there's an Indigenous couple that I use in the film that Lauren Cardinal and Tantu Cardinal voice. And it's one of my favorite performances and it was just about a mom who was separated from her husband and she's forced to talk to him on her cell phone as she's going through this. And the uncertainty of seeing each other while she has her child in the car is one of my most powerful interviews, I think, in the film. As well as Kim Basiner's character was a woman I worked with for many years. Ran a local nonprofit in our community and she was one of the toughest ladies I ever met. And then she lost her home and she had two daughters. And then when I was interviewing her, she just was a shell almost of the person I knew. And I could not imagine this woman being so vulnerable and affected by the fire. And so I really, that's another one that really sticks out to me because I was so shocked of like, wow, like how seeing her someone I knew affected that way. And the whole experience was hard for me. When you're talking to a child who's telling you about losing everything in their bedroom or you're talking to a teacher, talking about gutting the school in the classroom and throwing out all the sense of familiarity or an indigenous person talking about losing their way of life because even if we build back their home, the animals don't come back. Cause he was a fur trader. It was just, there was so many overwhelming, powerful stories and we could have done this a lot longer. This could have been a feature film, I think, but ultimately the goal was really to make this, no more than 30 minutes, so we could use this in classrooms and really have a chance to, especially with working with the Canadian mental health, we wanted to make sure that we didn't go over 30 minutes. So it was a struggle to get all these powerful stories in our film. And you, Charmaine, what stories really stood out to you? What was, what do you think was really important or maybe changed you or your life? Yeah, there, I still, well, I've seen this movie, I can't even tell you how many hundreds of times from beginning to finish, I still ball my eyes out with the ugly cry. It's so powerfully emote, like in a good way, a motive. One of my favorite stories is the one about Mr. and Mrs. Greyhorns that Michael talked about. Another one that I love is there's a scene where Michael J. Fox, who is Michael J. Byrd, is talking about how the community came together. And he really talked about the power of connection. And then there's another scene that I love as well. It's at the end and there's a celebration of the community and the volunteers and the first responders. And in the movie, Catherine O'Hara is the mayor and Eugene Levy is the fire chief. And they're talking about the community coming together and what got the community through this. And that part of the scene really, really moved me. And I just connected it. The other day I was watching it and I thought, oh, this is what I experienced when I lived there. I lived in Fort McMurray for 16 years. And I was embraced by this community and this community just became such champions for everything I did. And I saw that happen over and over and over again with other people, with other organizations. So I love how Michael at the very end just so beautifully captured community and community spirit. And that's one of the things that we saw with the Fort McMurray with Buffalo wildfires is that community was around the world. There were people around the world coming to support this community. And we've seen that with other disasters as well. So that one really just moves me all the time. Plus it's the song being sung by Jeremy Runner and the lyrics of that song are just so beautiful in talking about community connection and getting through tough times together. One of the things that people may not realize is they're listening to this. And they may be wondering, Fort McMurray, it sounds sort of Scottish. As you know, Charmine, I have spent a lot of time myself in Canada being an American and I've been there to speak. I've been there to workshops. And I love to do these walking tours and found out very early on that many of the early settlers were Scottish people, which many people I think outside of Canada may not know. So therefore you get these big MC names of places and spaces and you have a lot of beautiful statues of the early Scottish who were there. Very interesting, I think piece of trivia. Yeah, you know, Fort McMurray is a community in the center of the Boreal Forest. So you're surrounded by wilderness, everything. I think there's like 300 bears that drift into the community a year. So it really is in the middle of nowhere and there really is only one road in and out of the community. So we definitely tried to showcase that throughout the film. And that's the real remarkable thing about this story is that 88,000 people were available to evacuate in one day down this single highway is really incredible. I didn't realize that that is huge because that could have been a disaster unto itself. One road. Yeah, yeah, I think it's like the longest prolonged evacuation in Canadian history. So we're separated for months, we didn't go back. I really tried to do justice to sticking to the timeline of the story of they're evacuated, they're away for months, eventually they come back and the communities, not the exact same. And through that, they try and rebuild and even a lot of people don't realize but the fire continued to burn well over a year. So this fire is like five times the size of New York. So it's, yeah, it's huge. What do you attribute that to that people did not at some level panic enough that they would have created some kind of mass chaos but instead methodically, people are able to move themselves out of the area on one road. It's a safety community, everyone that majority of the people work in industry and there's a lot of people who have these roles that are safety related in our community. So it's just a lot of people have that mindset and that training background. And thank God they did because that allowed everyone to get out and we're running out of gas on the way out of the town. There's no gas, there's so many issues and people are helping each other, picking people up. Some people stay behind to help shut down industry and a lot of selflessness was going on during that time. So I think it was just our community that is usually well-prepared and wildfires like this happen every year around our community but we've never seen one so big where we're actually evacuated on this scale. And what about the communities? What have you learned or what are the messages here about building preparedness, building resilience across Canada, across the entire globe for the future? What can you impart to us that would be important for us with climate change to know should we be in a situation like this or know somebody who is? Charmaine? Yeah, one of the, Michael worked very, very closely as well with first responders, the local firefighter association and the community as well as others. And so we through this process of relationship building and conversations we were privy to some very, very helpful information around what communities do and how they prepare for disasters from the municipalities to the government organizations, the NGOs and one of the learnings that I've had through a number of people that we've talked about is around having conversations around preparedness in your families, in your homes. That was one of the key. And the other pieces that we heard is being prepared, having an emergency kit. I know of Red Cross, for example, have great examples of what goes in one of those emergency preparedness kits. And a lot of people that I talked to that lived in the community, that's what they were saying as well to me is that this really drove home the importance of these conversations about preparedness but also the conversations about coming home as well and how do we feel safe now in our communities we come home. And that's where I think Fort McMurray with Buffalo has such a strong sense of community spirit and togetherness and sort of working together to make things right. And that happened, I heard from people in the evacuation as well as the recovery process. And Michael, you can probably add to that around preparedness because you went through it. Yeah, should I? Yeah, well, for sure, that was a big piece of, I was one of the first people to come into the community. And I've not only filmed the process of people doing that but I also filmed the setup of a lot of those events and resources and work with the community during the one year, two year, three year anniversary of this. So it was, and this is a community still struggling. We were hit by first the downturn of the economy then affected by the wildfire, eventually a flood and then number one COVID count in the country. So we've seen a lot of disaster and a lot of tragedy and it's created an incredible amount of resiliency in our community. How does that resiliency show up? What have you seen? Is there something in particular that was really outstanding to you that made you believe again in humanity in spite of the economy, the fire, the flood and COVID? Oh, countless, countless things. It's so much of just a good-natured people of just the simple act of someone like even buying you a dinner or a beer or little things when you're down that low can like just completely change your day or week, your month, there's so much good-natured people in the community that I believe that because of that shared experience of going through lots of this. And I just think it's a community that chips in and really, and that's why we really tried to focus on the rebuilding because every year we do get that little glimpse on the fire anniversary of like, where are we now? And all we focus on is the fire. And the same footage we've seen every year. So really, I tried to showcase the rebuilding and just the good-natured people of how we all chipped in together to rebuild. So this movie you've said, this is not a disaster movie. You've made that clear. So what then is the ultimate theme of the movie? Charmaine, let's start with you. Oh, man, it really is a story of people coming home. And I love how Michael talks about this when he says it's not a disaster movie. It really is a movie about coming home and what it takes to have a community come back together to a community that doesn't look the same as when you left it. And I think the other overarching theme or maybe it's kind of the foundational theme is that of relationships. And when you watch the movie, relationship is woven in through every element of the movie and really challenges us to think about, what are we doing in our personal lives to nurture relationships, to nurture our wellbeing? And that of course is the big goal is that of wellbeing for people. Michael, what did I miss there? Yeah, what would you say? I think you nailed it. Really, it is just, it's a story of coming back home together. And it's a story of, a lot of the words that we've used many times in this talk, but I do think it is a story of community and it's a story of what it was like to rebuild together. Yeah. I know that you actually had one of our screenings that we had. I was so moved by this little nine-year-old girl she was watching the movie and she couldn't wait to talk to Michael as soon as it was over, she bolts out of her chair and she's in the lineup to everyone one to speak to Michael of course. And she said, this is a movie about mental health. We all need to watch this. And so I thought nine years old, she figured this out and she said, it's also a film about friendship. And I thought, I was thinking camaraderie, she described it really as friendship. It doesn't matter where you come from, how old you are, it was about friendship and connection and hope was what she described it as. And I thought that was pretty brilliant, nine years old and summed it up in a couple of sentences. She may have a career ahead of herself as either as a therapist who really gets human behavior. We're doing films and really understanding the gist of what they're about. Wow, powerful. And what else did she have to say after she jumped up and proclaimed all of this? What was her excitement? Was there something she wanted to do with it, to go with it? Well, she was talking to me, waiting for Michael. The other piece that I thought was really interesting is she said, I live in Canada and there was information in the movie about the fires that I didn't even know. So she was very inspired that there's an educational tone through that as well. And then once she got into talk with Michael, I have no idea what she said, but she was just riveting with excitement. And I can't remember the word that she used. I'm gonna call like change maker or difference maker. The conversation I had with her was that I really felt like this is a youth, nine years old. She already had a good sense of what her purpose on life or on the planet was. And that was to make a difference because everything that she was asking her saying kind of came down to that. And I don't know, Michael, once she made it up to you but that was what I saw with this incredible nine year old. Michael, did she give you her email to stay in touch? She did not give me her email. But we had an overwhelming response from the film and we showed it at Edmonton International with five sold out showings. And there was several children in a couple of the different screenings. And the feeling was unanimous. It was really great to see that like children picked up on it and you worry some, maybe some of this goes over their head or is this too heavy? Even was always a concern. But yeah, the feedback was extremely positive. The kids seemed to love it. The adults seemed just as supportive. So it was really an emotional but incredible weekend just to be there in a movie theater, something I haven't done in almost two years to be with there and watching it. I understand totally so well deserved because I understand having also a background as someone who was an actress for most of her life. The idea of putting so much energy for so long into a project before you get to see it come to fruition. How was that when you finally walked the red carpet, when you finally were the one sitting in the chair seeing all your love and efforts up on the screen? Yeah, that was the best part of all this. I've been working on this for five years, a little over that now I guess. And so to get to the point where we're finally able to show this to watch it in the theater. And it's been such a journey for me. I've sold my house. I went to animation school to do this project. And then I studied animation. And through that process, I learned about a legendary filmmaker Mark DePay, one of the founders of Visual Effects and one of the two people who single-handedly brought the dinosaurs to life in Jurassic Park and Nile and Legend and studied Mark and eventually got the opportunity to meet him. And he became a producer on this project and he really helped build this and reach out to animators that were from Guatemala and Argentina and really affected by wildfires. We built this team together. And yeah, so now to be in this theater watching it with people from Fort McMurray and Edmonton and that's also where we were all kind of evacuated to. So it was a truly a magical weekend or week. Yeah. And Charmaine, I know so much of your background. So in a way, this was a surprise to see you and your connection to a film in a way, not really at all. Because I know of your work with sponsorship, I know in the past you've done work out of kindness. And you did a travel show, if you will, spreading kindness and you got TV and you're an expert at this. So talk a little bit about this transition for you is this your first film indeed? And how was this for you to do this kind of collaboration? It's my very first film. So thank you, Michael, for being an amazing teacher. I'm still learning every second of every day, but it's been such a personally growth. It's been a personal growth journey for me. It has taken me out of my comfort zone so many times to learn new things. This project has had a lot of changes over the five years. And so Michael and I have learned to be so flexible and so adaptable. It's been incredible. And when Michael described his experience at the theater, as soon as the movie is playing and there's the sound, I mean, it's just going right through my body. I'm a wave of goosebumps. And then I see Michael's name on the screen. And that's when the ugly cry started. I was so proud of this movie and so proud of what Michael has done to bring these stories to life. So it's been incredible. I just so enjoyed the opportunity to work with Michael and the team. And I feel like the bug, I feel like I have the, I've been bitten now by the movie buzz. So I hope that Michael and I will be able to do other projects together because it's just been incredible. And Michael and I are both passionate about telling stories that matter and telling stories that make a difference. And he's got these incredible skills to write and to create through art a way of pulling these important stories together. There's so many dare to dream anecdotes here, which I really love about what you are both providing that there was a situation and you created a mess into an opportunity essentially. And you both stepped up to the plate, which I love and look what you've created. So I just wanna pause there for a minute cause I think this is so important as inspiration for folks. Charmaine, I want you to address this first because I've known you as we said in the beginning before we started this, we've known each other 11, at least 11 years. So even before I met you, you were a corporate gal, right? And so since I've known you to see the amazing places and spaces you stepped into and continue to step into, thank you for being so transparent to share with the audience that you really didn't know. This was, you felt completely like a novice doing this film. You learned a lot from Michael, but still you did it. You dared to dream and you dared to step forward. What is it in you? And I really mean this from curiosity, Charmaine. What is it in you that allows you to shine and be visible? That allows you in spite of not knowing how to spread wings and say, I think something's gonna catch me. I don't know how this is gonna turn out, but what propels you forward? Oh, that's a juicy question. I think for me, well, how do I explain this in words? I think for me, when something touches my heart, so when something literally touches my heart and I feel connected to it, it's almost like I'm full in at that point. And I go back to the very first meeting that I had with Michael. So I was up in the community working in disaster recovery and resilience projects with the community. And somebody connected Michael and I, and at the time the screenplay was a little shorter, but when I heard Michael talk about this movie and what it meant to him, and more importantly, his why, immediately I'm like a heck yes. And I think that for me, back to your question, Debbie, is that the why of a project really matters to me. When it touches my heart, I can get excited about a lot of things, but when it touches my heart that way, it's sort of like I can't stop myself. I can't help myself. And that's what inspires me. I mean, during this process of doing the film, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. So I'm going through surgeries and treatment. And I've said this to Michael. I'll probably get emotional at this point again, but this movie was actually a big part of my personal healing journey. I had something to wake up to, to be excited about every day. And that was this project. It was talking to Michael. It was around doing something that mattered in a time where I couldn't go out and speak and I wasn't doing training. So I know the power of how being connected to a why that matters to you, because I really, truly believe it's what got me through a really tough time in my life. Oh, I'm very moved by that answer, that a purpose even outside of your comfort or knowledge zone, still caused you to wake up with purpose and that purpose helped you ultimately in your healing process. I'm so glad you're okay with us. I'm doing great now, thank you. Yeah, it's so important. You're so germane to life and your contribution, Charmaine. So thank you. Thank you for being a heck yes so often. And thank you for asking me, Michael. Yeah, it was, it's really been about teamwork. Michael and I always say like teamwork makes the dream work. And it really, that's been this project, even Michael working with the team that he works with, with the animators and with the producers and all of that teamwork has just been so integral. But I'm gonna share something that I've heard people say about why they support this project, whether it's been partners or sponsors or champions. When Michael is not on the call, people say to me afterwards, they say, how can I not get involved like hearing Michael's story? And I'm just so moved by what he wants to create here. So Michael's purpose was a real driving force in so much of this happening. And so many people coming on board, not knowing what this was gonna look like, but they just said heck yes. Yeah, let's explore that for a minute. So Michael, if you don't mind to share, I am very curious because I understand what goes into, I mean, having the idea can be very exciting. Let's do a film. But the actual execution, many of the roadblocks I am quite sure that you faced, the amount of time that it takes to do something like this can be very draining and sometimes discouraging. So how was it for you? How did you say, I don't know, I don't get the how, but I'm in, I must? Yeah, I just, when I commit to something, I usually jump in to the deep end and there's no turning back for me. And that was a lot of this project that when I started this, I didn't have even a background in animation. So I wasn't totally sure how to do this. I have been a filmmaker, I think for about 10 years prior to that and ran corporate media production business. And I had done short films and premiered at Toronto Film Puzzle and I won Best Short Film at the Alberta Film and Television Awards. So I'm gearing up to make my first big feature film at this time. So it's 10 years of work coming together. And unfortunately, as I said, that was taken away. So I was really struggling. So like I had this feeling of like, oh my God, like how can this happen to me? I've been such a good person to this point. Like I just, so I wrote this as really a therapeutic exercise for myself. And through that, I fell in love with this idea of like, okay, let's do this now. And then slowly the logistics of this become a nightmare of like, oh, 10 minutes of animation costs this much. We don't have any money, how do I do that? So then I raised some money, I hired a little company and then they took all the money, never completed anything. So then I sold my home and I went to animation school and I learned how to animate myself and then I drew all the storyboards, did the character designs and ultimately got it to a level of, I could approach producers and the cast and start bringing in people. So it took years of working on this to get a 30 minute project. And I would submit my storyboards and character designs into some of the best animation companies in Canada. And I would get quotes raging from like $1.2 million to do 30 minutes of animation. That doesn't include the voices, that doesn't include the sound design. So the feasibility of this project became like almost impossible. But slowly we would just continue working on this and this idea of, I don't know how long this will take. We might have to do all the roles ourselves, but eventually we got it to a point where with John's help and Mark DePay's help that we were able to really kind of pull this off and do this for a fraction of the cost. Oh, you know, I have in my past done animation voiceover work. And I never knew on that side of things as talent, the kind of prices and cost you are talking about. Yes. That's incredibly eye opening and talk about resilience. It's almost like life imitates art, imitates life, that you are doing a film about a tragedy that occurs and shining a light on very important issues. And in a way, you taking on this project is also having the same path of discouragement, right? So much. I sold everything I owned to make this. Like, you know, there's nothing left. It's just was, you know, blood, sweat and tears to pull this off really to get it to a level you know, we could watch it at Empton International. And that's everyone on the team. Everyone, you know, from the animators to the producers, you know, you know, all the sound design people. Everyone is doing this really, you know, out of the goodness of their heart. So you have to convince a lot of people to believe in your dream. Yeah. So hashtag Netflix, hashtag Amazon Prime. Yeah, that'd be great. I hope you're listening and I will create that hashtag, actually. Thank you. That'd be awesome. Yeah, it's really inspiring. And the educational campaigns that you talked about for communities all around the world that you would like to see be connected to this film, what is the education that you're planning to see open up? What's the conversation that you're wanting to have there? Yeah, one of the things that is really powerful with this movie, because it's 30 minutes, it can be shown in a classroom and then a panel discussion could happen. So, and Michael and I have actually sat on a number of these panels so far, where we might have Michael and I on the panel and an emergency first responder or someone from Red Cross or a mental health organization like CMHJ. And what a powerful way to create dialogue in a school or a workplace is to watch the movie then have this facilitated conversation that invites the communication around resilience and coping and how do we get through tough times in life? And so that's one piece. And then we've been working on mental health resources with CMHJ, Michael and his teams also been working on an incredible app around mental health. So we'll be rolling these out in the new year and opportunities for people to watch the film and have a structured discussion. So we put together discussion guide tools because we went back to that feedback we heard in the beginning, I don't know how to get the conversation started. So we thought, well, let's create that. Let's create the tool to help people start the conversation whether it's driving your kids to a soccer practice and you're in the minivan or whether it's around the dinner table or whether it's in a classroom or workplace environment. So we created those tools to simplify the conversation process of getting it started. And what would you like to say here at the end? Michael, what would you like to tell listeners anything we haven't covered or any message you have? And certainly please remember and remind us the ways that we can get in touch with you and support you. You know, a lot of people have come up to me over the last couple of months and be like, man, like how lucky it, you know, you are to make this work. And I think the message I would give to other inspiring artists out there is, you know I believe luck happens when opportunity and preparation meet. And it took many years of getting this to a place where, you know, I was prepared and I was able to show those, you know the script and the storyboards to the producers to eventually the actors to eventually the sound design and animators and the sponsors and, you know and I think if I could inspire anyone out there I think, yeah, that would be my message and that I think creativity happens when you're not afraid to fail. So, you know, being able to jump into that deep end and immerse yourself. It's okay to suck at something, you know it's like, if you want to work on it every day you will be great. I really believe in the 10,000 hours theory. So, if you, you know, if this if you want it bad enough, you can do anything. That's the message I would love to leave any inspiring artists with today. If you want it bad enough, it can be yours. And how about you? My name. I'll speak to the mental health component around just remembering it's okay to not be okay and asking for help is really a sign of strength. A lot of people see it as a weakness. It's a sign of strength and being there in silence. I'm going to use a quote from somebody else that said this on one of our panels but being there in silence and being there for people is a form of helping and is a form of conversation. And Charmaine, if people do want to reach out let's say they are going through a difficult time where do they reach out? In every community there's going to be different resources and when you don't know where to reach out you can certainly look at your community organizations there's probably a mental health or distress line or a crisis line in the community. And I've always said, if you can't find somewhere your local doctor, physician or hospital will certainly know where to send you but it's really important and teachers as well. So parents will often find access to mental health resources through the teachers that teach their children. A lot of organizations as well in different countries I know the US and Canada have a resource called 2-1-1 where you dial 2-1-1 it's not in every community but it is in lots. And 2-1-1 maintains a database of all of the different types of services whether it's mental health, financial support, addiction counseling. And so looking for that one resource in the community it can refer you to all of the other organizations that somebody might need a connection to. I hadn't heard of that before dialing 2-1-1. Excellent, I'm going to look into that. And perhaps folks who are listening to you and some of these suggestions will write them down. So you don't have to get into a jam if you're going through a hard time and it's a lot on top of it to think how am I going to get out? Get to the other side of this. Just have a list that's handy of resources that should you ever need. And of course your friends, friends, family, colleagues if you're spiritual and you've got a connection there but definitely your tribe, your community keep that list handy because for all of us at some point in often several points in our lives that will be really integral to how things turn out for us. Yeah. I want to thank you both so much for what you've done. And for coming on today, I wish you the best. I see the very best for your movie and beyond. Thank you. Thank you for having us on. It's been an absolute pleasure. And for folks who want to keep checking out the movie Charmaine and Michael, what they've done and watch the trailer. Again, it was on YouTube or their website is BackHomeAgainMovie.com. And I end today's show with this quote from Elizabeth Edwards. Resilience is accepting your new reality even if it's less good than the one you had before. You can fight it. You can do nothing but scream about what you've lost or you can accept that and try to put together something that's good. Subscribe to this number one transformation conversation. Comment, like the show. And I do read everything and I get back to you. We have so many big names coming up in the following weeks from Indigenous tribes, which I'm very excited about, to a profound healer doctor who will be here, to Morgan Daimler, who's put out, I think, 25 novels thus far, and she writes about fairies, fairies and elementals. And this is a subject I've never explored, but she is definitely the expert to explore it with. You will want to be tuning into those. Thank you for joining. And I hope you were inspired by today's BackHomeAgain film story to definitely, even if you don't know the how, step into your dream, create it and know that Providence will take over.