BIFF CARES

Filmmaker AttendingConsider the Conversation

A documentary on a taboo subject.

Friday: 6:30 pm  – Eclipse Center
Sunday: 2:00 pm  –  The Armory 

Consider the Conversation Awards

Category: Feature
Country: USA
Language: English
Rating:
Runtime:
Director: Terry Kaldhusdal, Michael Bernhagen
Producer: Burning Hay Wagon Productions
Website: Consider The Conversation
Facebook:  Consider The Conversation

This Years Event

A panel of filmmakers and community leaders concerned with end-of-life issues will participate in this year’s Beloit International Film Festival “BIFF Cares” presentation of the film Consider the Conversation: A Documentary on a Taboo Subject. Presented in cooperation with Beloit Regional Hospice.

Michael Bernhagen & Terry Kaldusdal

Michael Bernhagen & Terry Kaldusdal

Panel Discussion

A panel of individuals with different approaches to patient- centered end-of-life care and cultural change will speak and answer questions following the screenings. Assembled by Sarah Kruse, Director of Community Outreach for Beloit Regional Hospice, the panel will be moderated by the film’s co-creator and Hospice advocate Michael Bernhagen.

Beloit Screening

Joining Michael on the Beloit panel will be his filmmaking partner Terry Kaldhusdal and:

Kathy Vickerman, long-time hospice volunteer, advocate and retired nurse “passionate about the importance of communicating end-of-life wishes, driven by her own critical health experience during pregnancy with her second child”

Gene Van Galder, retired Beloit minister and vice president of Beloit Regional Hospice who has led grief recovery classes and has worked with many hospice clients and families

Ruth Kolpack, a chaplain at Beloit Regional Hospice who previously worked as a pastoral associate for St. Thomas Catholic Church. “In many respects, dying is a very intimate process and so to be welcomed into their lives at this time is an honor.”

Janesville Screening

In Janesville, the panel will again be moderated by the film’s co-creator and Hospice advocate Michael Bernhagen. The panel will include the filmmakers, Kathy Vickerman, and:

Melissa Olson, a social worker for the past 20 years and Beloit Regional Hospice Grief Program coordinator with a passion for end-of-life care

Joyce Hart Smerick, Program Coordinator at the Wisconsin Medical Society for Honoring Choices Wisconsin, which works to improve advance care planning in the state through clinical pilots and community outreach.

Thank you

Proceeds from the showings will be shared with Beloit Regional Hospice which serves Rock, Walworth and Green counties in Wisconsin and Boone and Winnebago in Illinois.

Film Synopsis:

Consider the Conversation is a remarkable, thought-provoking film that looks at many of the issues that we will all face at the end-of-life. It opens the floodgates of thought and conversation on this most difficult and often taboo subject. It helps to illustrate many areas of improvement in our health care system. I would encourage everyone to watch this important film including physicians, healthcare workers, patients and families. This film will help us to be better physicians, better nurses, better patients and better people.
– James Roberts, M.D., Medical Director, Mayo Clinic Health System-Home Health & Hospice

 

Sponsored by:

Beloit Regional Hospice

Discussion Guide:

Download (PDF, 2.1MB)