After watching two heartwarming films about hope, my next step into reviewing content was on a docudrama from an interesting connection I made years ago: Nicholas Sherry. For years he wanted to make a docudrama about a good friend of his: Jude Swanson. Jude has lived with mental illness, specifically depression and suicidal thoughts.
We get treated to a mix of both footage re-enacted by local Vancouver actors, and interviews from some mental health experts.
The re-enactment explains Jude’s whole story of how he started feeling upset and then how he recovered. His story began in the February of 96, when he was in denial of stressful feelings. One morning during a heavy rainstorm, Jude played by Fred Levasseur seems to be moving slower than usual and struggling to communicate. This worries his girlfriend Gale (Jamie Rose McKeague), especially when he feels like it doesn’t matter if he’s going to be late. Jude doesn’t see the reason in continuing on in life. When he finally shows up to work, his boss (Chris Maruna) confronts Jude on how his job performance has significantly decreased. Jude struggles to express how he feels and how everything in life seems to be outrunning him while he’s a lot slower. The boss doesn’t understand what Jude is saying, and Jude decides to quit in a fit of rage. When Jude explains it to Gale 2 weeks later, she gets upset and soon enough they part ways. Jude gets more and more depressed, and doesn’t communicate with anybody, and soon friends of his get more and more worried. We then get introduced to 2 friends Michelle (Julie Merrick) and Dan (JB) who talk about what happened to Jude and how he managed to survive. It’s revealed that Jude was going to commit suicide at a skytrain station by jumping in front of a train and thanks to some fast-paced footage we see that he ended up in the hospital. Sometime later on, Jude has moved into a shoddy low-cost hotel room but the clerk (Terry Mullett) being concerned helps get Jude relocated to a better location. Jude ends up getting an apartment of his own with his own private kitchen and bathroom. After he gets comfortable in his new digs, Jude also begins advocating for affordable housing for people who went through the same problems as him. We then get treated to what Jude is doing today with an example shot ot him talking to a man named Bob (Greg Russell Tiderington) who is dealing with anxiety issues. Jude helps Bob to make accomplishments and overcome his issues. He does a different approach by showing them how to do things instead of doing things for them and navigating in a slow easygoing path.
Meanwhile we get interviews in between with not only Dr. Pierre but Jude himself sharing his personal story, and Karen O’Shaughnessy who was once the executive director of lookout emergency and society. She actually talked about what Jude was like when they meant and what he started doing. Jude is an amazing person for recovering and helping people out of tough situations, and the film about him is incredibly stunning. It’s amazing how well this was pulled off, and Nicholas Sherry did all the writing, directing, editing, and special effects by himself. He truly is a power force just like Jude Swanson and they were an incredible combination together along with everyone else involved in this masterful work of art.
