Seeking Meaning - One Trip At A Time

TYPE: Documentary
GENRE: Documentary
STATUS: Production

LOGLINE

Feature length documentary film that highlights the growing number of US Veteran turning to psychedelic medicines to overcome symptoms of PTSD, TBI, Anxiety and Depression.  

SYNOPSIS

44 veterans are taking their own lives EVERY day.

8x more have died by suicide on US soil than have died in combat since 9/11.  

Our nations finest are returning home scarred by traumas, given five days of integration and a job interview before being set adrift into civilian life. 

The ‘greatest country in the world’ is failing the same men and women who risk their lives for this country to be able to make that claim.

We have to do better.

We are clearly capable of designing the world’s most advanced weapons and training our soldiers to be incredibly effective fighting machines…Yet we can’t find a solution to support their mental health when they come home?

Or can we?

Roughly 70 years ago, scientists started researching the transformative effects of psychedelics on mental health and the early data showed truly stunning results.

Results that are hard to fathom compared to the marginal gains seen by the pharmaceutical and therapeutic modalities that make up our current metal health system.

But it was short lived, for not long after this groundbreaking work began it was all swept under the rug as a part of the war on drugs…to even research it was highly illegal.

Fast forward to today… there is a growing network of Veterans across this country who are sick of seeing their brothers and sisters in arms take their own lives, and instead are taking matters into their own hands.

They’ve begun helping each other heal through the use of plant medicines and are reporting truly transformative experiences.

For those willing to try these medicines they often find a new path forward…one they feel is worth living for.  One where they are able to learn to forgive, love themselves and those around them again.

And as a result, a growing contingency of veterans are finding renewed purpose and place to serve once again as they dedicate their lives advocating for the decriminalization of these medicines for the betterment of mental healthcare of ALL Americans. 

So why is this plant medicine illegal?

Why don't we trust the same men and women that we entrust to operate billions of dollars worth of machinery and weapons in the name of protecting us, spend a handful of hours exploring the depths of their own consciousness in order to heal?

If we did, how many lives could we save?

One trip at a time.

ARTISTIC STATEMENT

Our mission is to help our society heal.  

We aim to save lives and help individuals and families live better lives by destigmatizing the use of psychedelics in order to increase their acceptance in mainstream society as a viable mental health treatment.

Our goal is for these substances to be de-scheduled, legalized, and/or decriminalized on a national level so that they can be utilized (and funded) as a viable option for mental health treatment for all Americans, IN America.

While research is being funded, articles are being published and municipalities across the country are starting to decriminalize their use, their acceptance into the mainstream is far from near.   And we are acutely aware of the political headwinds facing this movement, specifically from the Alcohol and Tobacco and Pharmaceutical lobbyists that are going to do whatever they can to curb or delay Washington from acting.  

Because of these headwinds we believe it will take a majority of American's standing up and demanding these medicines be incorporated into our mental health system to see real change at a national level.  

And the only way to move the needle in a meaningful way is to get buy in and acceptance from a large swath of the American population, from the ground up.   

We need to move the conversation about psychedelics out of the l shadows of the left and into the light of mainstream society.   And we believe the only way to do that is to share relatable stories of everyday people, like our nations veterans,  in a way that will appeal to a more traditionally conservative audience.      

With Seeking Meaning, we are looking to pull at our audiences heartstrings by making this much more than an exploration of ceremonies or medicines.  Our goal is to place the human experience at its core, accentuating real-life stories, emotions, and struggles one encounters on their journey towards healing.

While scientific support and defining the modalities themselves play a vital role, they act as supporting elements, providing evidence and context to the narratives. 

By weaving these elements together, we believe we can bridge the chasm between the psychedelic experience and the audience, rendering a therapeutic journey that is accessible and relatable to mainstream Americans.  

If successful, we envision a future where veterans no longer have to spend $6,000 to fly oversees to seek these therapies.  We envision these treatments being fully integrated into VA mental health system.  We envision less lives lost and fewer families broken by tragedy.

Most importantly we envision a future filled with more compassion, empathy and understanding across our society…one trip at a time.
 

KEY CREW

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