To highlight issues around childhood trauma and discuss intervention strategies, the New York State Education Department, in partnership with the Office of Mental Health, is screening the film, “Something Terrible Happened to Joey,” on Monday, October 16, 2023. After the film, a panel of experts unpacked the messaging and takeaways and highlighted the tools and resources available to support any child, like Joey, facing trauma. The audience was full of educational professionals from across the state, including members of the board of New York reagents. The panel included: Kathleen DeCataldo, NYSED Commissioner’s Senior Advisory for Student Support Services; Joseph Lovett; Maria Fernandez, Governor’s Deputy Secretary for Education; Victor Rose, NYSED Student Support Services; Sarah Kuriakose, Associate Commissioner, Division of Integrated Community Services for Children and Families, New York State Office of Mental Health; Nina Aledort, Deputy Commissioner, OCFS.
What People Are Saying
“I personally have helped to support a number of Joe's independent films because I believe strongly in his ability to cast new perspectives on age-old and often unrecognized issues. He always brings his projects to fruition and distribution by creating unique networks for interdisciplinary and intergenerational discussion.
Something Terrible Happened to Joey would be a useful tool to help in psychotherapy, especially with children who have suffered a traumatic loss. These losses often go underground and are hard for the children and their parents to acknowledge, bring into the light, appreciate the seriousness of the pain that is carried by both the children and their families. Sometimes these losses are carried unconsciously for generations unless and until brought to light. We have learned this especially from the work done on intergenerational transmission of trauma after the Holocaust.
I urge you to add your support to this unique project.”
— Victor P. Bonfilio JD PhD
Faculty, Supervising and Personal Analyst
Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California
“Wow! You’ve created a lovely, touching, wonderful movie that I’m sure will do exactly as you hope — help children who have experienced tragedy but don’t yet have the emotional vocabulary to express their grief.
I’m proud of you. You’ve taken your talents in a completely new direction and are on a road to create an important work of art — and of aid.
— Geof Bartz, ACE at HBO Documentary Films
“"Something Terrible Happened to Joey" is fascinating, moving and clearly on it's way to being something very special for a very wide audience. Your ongoing exploration of self in the service of others is so commendable.”
- John Hoffman, Filmmaker and President of Better World Projects.
“I loved it and was so touched by the music and the delicacy of the punctuations like the footsteps. The painting technique reinforces our understanding of "process," how everything is becoming. Nothing is static.
This film is clearly a masterfully attuned collaboration."
— Debbie Waxenberg, PhD
Faculty, NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis
Something Terrible Happened to Joey is a riveting and poignant exploration of trauma, community, and resilience. The short film is deeply layered, allowing audiences to draw connections to their past and present, with messages that can be interpreted differently based on age and identity. "Something Terrible" can be used in a myriad of ways, whether in the classroom to teach empathy, counseling office when touching upon trauma or family systems, or even at home to support healthy dialogues about feelings.
-Alexander Morris-Wood, M.S.
Festival dates.
COMING SOON
