A FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
Loss is part of every life.
How do we learn to live with it?
IN DEVELOPMENT
A FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
Loss is part of every life.
How do we learn to live with it?
IN DEVELOPMENT
Call the Doula explores the losses that shape us from childhood to old age, weaving intimate personal stories with the work of doulas and grief educators to ask how we learn to live with loss and care for one another.
ABOUT THE FILM
The losses that shape a life
Loss enters our lives long before we know how to name it. A childhood goodbye, the end of a relationship, a change in health, the death of someone we love. Each can alter our sense of who we are and the future we imagined. Yet many of us reach these moments with little understanding of grief or how to support someone experiencing it.
Through intimate personal stories and encounters with doulas and grief educators, Call the Doula explores how we understand loss across a lifetime. It invites us to learn about grief before a loss occurs, and to bring that understanding into our families, workplaces and communities. With room for humour, affection and remembrance, the film explores different experiences of grief, the care people find helpful, and how facing mortality might change the way we live.
THE DOULA AND GRIEF EDUCATION
Someone to talk to. Room to understand.
What can a doula offer when someone is facing loss? The film explores companionship, practical support and the conversations that help people express what they need.
Alongside grief educators, doulas open a conversation about how we understand loss and where different kinds of support belong.
Listening
Time to speak about what has changed.
Understanding
Language for experiences that can be difficult to explain.
Practical Care
Help with the everyday needs that continue through loss.
Connection
Finding people and support we can turn to.
Loss enters our lives long before we know how to name it. A childhood goodbye, the end of a relationship, a change in health, the death of someone we love. Each can alter our sense of who we are and the future we imagined. Yet many of us reach these moments with little understanding of grief or how to support someone experiencing it.
Through intimate personal stories and encounters with doulas and grief educators, Call the Doula explores how we understand loss across a lifetime. It invites us to learn about grief before a loss occurs, and to bring that understanding into our families, workplaces and communities. With room for humour, affection and remembrance, the film explores different experiences of grief, the care people find helpful, and how facing mortality might change the way we live.
WHY THIS FILM
Finding words for what we carry
We want to help build a culture in which grief and loss are understood as part of life. The film explores losses that receive little acknowledgement, grief before a death, and the experience of traumatic loss. It asks how we can learn about grief before we encounter it, while recognising when someone needs further support.
→ Understanding grief and loss as universal experiences.
→ Learning before a loss occurs.
→ Feeling more confident caring for one another.
Towards the end, the film turns to mortality: what frightens us about death, what brings comfort, and how these conversations might change the way we live.
WHO THIS FILM IS FOR
A wider conversation
→ People living with loss, whether recent or long-held.
→ Families, friends and carers who want to understand.
→ Workplaces and communities learning how to respond.
→ Anyone curious about grief, care and the life we share.
You may recognise your own experience, or come to understand someone you love a little better.
A NOTE FROM THE FILMMAKER
Why I am making this film
My own experiences of loss, my work in grief education, my experience as a workplace chaplain and my training as an end-of-life doula have led me to ask why we learn so little about grief before we encounter it.
As the director of Shattered, I have spent years listening to people describe how their lives changed—and the losses that followed. These experiences have deepened my understanding that grief reaches far beyond bereavement. It can accompany changes in our health, work, relationships, identity and the futures we imagined.
With Call the Doula, I want to make a moving film that helps us find language for grief and loss throughout our lives. I hope audiences will recognise something of their own experiences, feel less alone and grow more confident in caring for one another.
Kathie Melocco
Filmmaker
PROJECT STATUS
Call the Doula is a feature
documentary in development.
01 Stories of grief and loss
02 Conversations with doulas and grief educators
03 Research and production planning
FOLLOW THE FILM AS IT TAKES SHAPE.
PROJECT STATUS
Call the Doula is a feature
documentary in development.
01 Stories of grief and loss
02 Conversations with doulas and grief educators
03 Research and production planning
FOLLOW THE FILM AS IT TAKES SHAPE.
PRODUCTION FUNDING
Help fund Call the Doula
We are seeking financial support to develop, produce and bring Call the Doula to audiences. The film aims to help people understand grief and loss as part of life, before they encounter them.
Funding will pay for the skilled work of making the documentary, including research, filming, editing, sound, music and paid production time. We welcome conversations with prospective funders and philanthropic supporters. Contact us to discuss the funding proposal.
The film will retain editorial independence.
We also welcome relevant expertise and practical assistance. These contributions will complement the financial support needed to make the film.
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