A Lion in the House...

The following is a guest post to Be more Tuned In from Susan Latton, the national development campaign consultant for Independent Lens "A Lion in the House," a powerful two-part documentary about childhood cancer and the effects it has on young patients and their families. The film airs at 8 p.m. on WPT Wednesday and Thursday. There will be a live call-in phone bank staffed by Wisconsin volunteers with information about childhood cancer and support opportunities during the film.

I first met the "A Lion in the House" filmmakers, Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar, back in December of 2004, in their home in Yellow Springs, Ohio. I traveled with a colleague from the Independent Television Service (ITVS) to help them facilitate one of the first of many community screenings of segments from the four-hour film. The screening was followed by an impassioned and energetic discussion on what might happen in Cincinnati to improve services and better support families facing childhood cancer -- or other life-threatening illness. That core group of service providers, families and clergy have gone on to provide both city and statewide training for school nurses. They've conducted community health fairs in libraries and in targeted, underserved communities aimed at connecting families with knowledge, resources and support. (Continued...)

ITVS, which has a single purpose to foster plurality and diversity in public television, was already providing development funds for Steve and Julia to help them complete the seven-year investment they had begun in documenting the cancer journeys of these five children and their families. The Cincinnati experience convinced us that this was both a powerful film and an important opportunity to galvanize communities around issues of child cancer -- and specifically, cancer health disparities, cancer survivorship and pediatric end-of-life and bereavement care.

During the past two years, it is has been my privilege to lead the development of the "A Lion in the House" community engagement campaign -- the resources and outcomes of which your viewers can read about here. This campaign and it's educational materials have been developed with enormous support and expertise from the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and twenty other national partner organizations who have embraced this film and its educational goals.

This month, there are literally hundreds of screenings and community forums involving the "Lions" film in medical schools, community centers, public housing projects, Gilda's Clubs and of course, public television stations. New collaborations have been formed in Texas, Chicago, New England and Alaska where families, health professionals and young cancer survivors have come together to assure that the isolation many child cancer families experience can be reduced, that young adult survivors become more informed about potential late effects, and that families who face the loss of a child do so with access to the very best palliative, hospice and bereavement care.

That is the very best we can hope for -- in the world of public television outreach -- that a viewing experience can be transformative in individuals and even communities. For all of you who delve into the experience of watching this film, I hope it will open a window into a new world -- and to quote Julia Reichert, "that it offers the possibility of increasing our compassion for other members of the human family."

Susan Latton is the national campaign development consultant for ITVS and the "A Lion in the House" campaign. Previous documentary campaigns include David Sutherland's "Country Boys" and Kartemquin Film's "The New Americans." Latton's home is in Madison, Wis. and she is married to Wisconsin Public Television Photographer Jim Gill.

To listen to a downloadable version of a companion radio show for this film, please visit the WHYY Web site.

Below are some links to national media coverage of the film from various sources:

Cincinatti Post

New York Times

U.S. News & World Report

Boston Globe