Andrew Jenkins, a Welsh film producer, has decided to sell his Aston Martin in order to support the production of a feature film about suicide. The film will examine the devastating impact suicide has on families and friends who are “left behind”. Suicide is the biggest killer of men below 50 years of age in the UK and in the decade since compiling a list of 19 people he knew who had taken their own lives, Jenkins’ list has grown to 34. “I’ve known people who seem to be the life and soul of the party, only to go home that very evening and kill themselves,” Jenkins said. “It just goes to show how huge this is, and we’ve got to do something about it.”
Jenkins said he and his business partner, filmmaker Peter Watkins Hughes, have worked hard to handle such a sensitive topic while respecting bereaved families and the reality of suicide. The screenplay for their proposed movie, Bubbles, tells the true-life stories of people who have endured the trauma of suicide. They have taken advice from mental health charities on the script and the project is backed by bereaved relatives of those who have taken their own lives. “Suicide is such a complicated and individual story, but we’ve got to do something about it,” Watkins Hughes said. “We want the film to be a catalyst to a conversation, and if somebody is prevented from going down that path, then that’s what it’s all about.”
The sale of Jenkins’s much-loved car is an important part of his plans to begin filming the feature, after he failed to raise enough funds through other means. The Welsh film producer spoke of the transformative power of conversations to prevent suicide and promised that the film would do justice to the gravity of the subject. “I had a good mate who was so down on his luck he couldn’t see a way out of it, but we sat with him for hours and got him through that dark period,” he said. “A year later he’d met the love of his life, he now has a child, and he says to me he can’t believe how close he was to losing all that – so there is always hope.”
Jenkins spoke of one fundraising event that left the poignancy of the film in sharper focus when one man who donated money at an enjoyable night of music at a local pub went home after the event and took his own life. Jenkins said he went through a period of serious guilt and questioning whether the film was a good idea. “But I’ve been flooded with supportive messages since,” he added. The film is scheduled to start filming in March and hopes to offer a bridge for individuals to initiate meaningful conversations about a difficult and highly sensitive topic.
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