Content Warning: Nerds and Beyond wants to be mindful of our readers’ mental health and provide a warning for awareness. Topics such as suicide, depression, and anxiety are discussed in this article as well as the embedded trailer.
Jared Padalecki -who stars as Sam Winchester on the CW show Supernatural- has been very open in the last several years about his struggle with anxiety and depression. In March of 2015 he kicked off the Always Keep Fighting campaign selling shirts to bring awareness to mental health issues. The proceeds of these sales contributed to a number of charities focused on mental health awareness and suicide prevention, such as “To Write Love On Her Arms” and “A.I.R. Attitudes in Reverse – Student Suicide Prevention – Mental Health Awareness“. Padalecki also contributed a chapter to “Families Don’t End With Blood”, a book compiled and edited by Lynn Zubernis in 2017 where he discusses his personal struggle. In 2016, he contributed to I Chose Life: Stories of Suicide and Survival, a documentary, currently in post production, written and directed by Jacqui Blue.
I Chose Life is meant to dovetail the feature film, The Last Train written by and starring Anthony Montez which was released in Oct 2017. Montez shares his own personal story of attempted suicide in the documentary and used that event to write the fictional story played out in The Last Train. The documentary touts itself as “the most in-depth film on the subject covering 5,000 years of history through to our current crisis where suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among America’s youth.” It features vignettes from Padalecki as well as T.O.N.E-z (Justified), and Kevin Briggs (Guardian of the Golden Gate Bridge) where they discuss their own personal experiences with suicide whether it be knowing someone who struggles or their own struggle. Starseed Pictures, which is producing the documentary released a trailer on YouTube on August 31 (see below). I Chose Life is slated to premier in select theaters in 2019.