PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A father who lost his son. A trauma nurse at a hospital. A high school principal. Community activists. The list of people affected by gun violence in Philadelphia seems endless.
Many of them are telling their stories in a new documentary called “Trigger.”
“While this film tackles something that is very painful for our entire community, it has this angle of hope and courage and bravery, and it was a really amazing talk,” said Jamie Brunson, executive director of First Person Arts.
The storytelling group has been partnering with the city for several years now, specifically around its Engaging Males of Color Initiative. Together, they created “Trigger,” which features real people who have dealt with gun violence.
“We have people that were part of the problem and turned their life around,” Brunson said of the people in the film. “We have parents who lost their kids. We have first responders that deal with these babies when they come into the emergency room bleeding out. This was an amazing group of people that just let down their guard and told the truth.”
The diverse group of storytellers wanted to use their lived experiences to find hope with a vengeance, using it to heal themselves and others while addressing the issue in their communities.
Photo credit First Person Arts
Photo credit First Person Arts
Gabriel Bryan, with the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services, said the conversation reveals the lasting ripple effects of this epidemic.
“You have a lot of young people who are 15 and 16 years old who might even know some of the shooters, but in many ways, they’re dealing with this fear and this fright and being scared, and then we’re asking them to go to school and get good grades,” he said.
Bryan said the process of making the film was actually therapeutic.
“Anytime you can gather folks together who have related experiences, particularly with something so personal as gun violence and violence itself, you find that sharing these stories allows us to find the common humanity with each other that’s really lost right now,” he said.
First Person Arts is hosting a “Trigger” premiere Monday evening at the Parkway Central Free Library.
“There will be tables of resources there as well so you can access services actually on the spot,” said Bryan. “Oftentimes people ask the question, well, what’s next? We wanna have the ‘what’s next’ in the space available so people can actually access those services.”
Beginning January 2023, the film will be shown across Philadelphia and other areas in the commonwealth that suffer high gun violence and low behavioral health utilization.