You had me at "Hello"

Hello!

Welcome to the website of I Want You to Live, a 22 minute short documentary based in Toronto, Canada. My name is Leah Renaud and I will be your director on this journey of ours. First off, I want to thank you for coming here and reading this. Creating this story has been a long time coming and thankfully, I had an army of people who believed in this idea and helped me bring it all together. As you can see on our home page and crew page, we are a group of six individuals who believe in the power of film and the ways in which it can help us communicate the words we can't say. We are all fourth-year students at Ryerson University who came together one day in February and decided to make this happen, bringing knowledge and help to the screens of our peers, loved ones and hopefully others who really need to hear this.

The topic of suicide and mental health is one that is underdeveloped and needs as much help as it can get. With this documentary, we hope to provide information and an honest look into the way that society is impacting the way we speak about certain topics. We want to make sure this isn't just a film of people stating facts and statistics, but something that people watch to begin to understand what someone may be going through. We want this piece to be one that is brutally and beautifully honest, helping people who may need to hear someone say "I want you to live". Sometimes that's all you need to hear to get you through and society has a strange way of speaking about suicide, so we are bringing some attention to these words we use, some that may save a life.

Throughout this blog, we will updating our progress with filming and research, as well as some behind the scenes look at our journey. Follow us on Instagram @iwytl and check out our Facebook at I Want You to Live. We are actively looking for artists who would like to submit their art pieces and poetry to get posted on our platforms! Please send us an email at artwhistleinfo@gmail.com if you have any questions or are just looking for a chat.