Live Through This Project: Nashville, December 9-12
Live Through This is a collection of portraits and stories of suicide attempt survivors, as told by those survivors.
The intention of
Live Through This is to show that everyone is susceptible to depression and suicidal thoughts by sharing portraits and stories of real attempt survivors-people who look just like you. These feelings could affect your mom, your partner, or your brother, and the fear of talking about it can be a killer.
Historically, suicide attempt survivors, in particular, have spoken under conditions of anonymity in order to save them from being discriminated against. The silence and shame created in that act are dangerous.
Live Through This encourages survivors to own their experiences publicly-using both their full names and likenesses-and thereby works to strip the issue of anonymity and raise awareness by, simply, talking about it. It's the first known project of its kind, exploring a world that has remained a taboo for far too long.
TSPN is excited to announce that Dese'Rae Stage, founder of LTT, will be in Nashville for a limited time to conduct interviews of suicide attempt survivors between December 9th and 12th.
Do you want to share your story for the
Live Through This project? If so, please fill out the
contact form with the following informaion:
- Name
- Location (please specify that you are willing to travel to Nashville, as this is required)
- Nearest major metropolitan area
- Phone number
- A brief description of the situation surrounding your suicide attempt and any other pertinent information you would like to share with Dese'Rae
- Whether you're comfortable being filmed
In order to participate, you
must be:
- 18 or over (no exceptions)
- willing to use your full name and likeness
- willing to sign a model release (click to download)
- at least one year out from your most recent attempt
How does the interview work?
The meeting is broken down into two parts: the story, and then the shoot. First, the survivor tells their story. Des lets them go at their own pace and include only the details they wish to share. She tries not to interrupt - she prefer it to be as purely from the survivor's perspective as possible and don't want to throw it off course. She does often ask questions at the end, but it's more of a conversation than an interview. There is no structure, and the content of the questions comes from the story. Everything is recorded. Afterward, while the survivor is still in that experiential headspace, they make a set of portraits. Again, her direction is minimal. Dese'Rae's only request is that the survivor look directly into her lens. The entire process usually takes about an hour and a half to two hours.
Each portrait is then presented on the website with a curated snippet of the survivor's story: something poignant or a unique perspective. When paired in this way, the portraits and stories work to de-stigmatize suicide as a topic unworthy of everyday dialogue and to serve as proof of life on the other side of a suicide attempt.
It should be noted that the current turnaround time from interview to publication is approximately 2 years.
Still not sure if you would like to participate?
Here is a great video recently published by Upworthy that highlights the project and the impact it has on the field of suicide prevention and awareness.
Live Through This project's trip to Nashville has been sponsored by Samantha Nadler, TSPN's Middle TN Regional Coordinator, who has also participated in the project. To read her interview,
click here.
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