This article was written by Susan Celentano, MFT, and was used with permission from the Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center in Culver City, CA. The paper is excerpted from the Oct/Nov/Dec 2003 and the Jan/Feb/Mar 2004 issues of the Survivors After Suicide newsletter, a publication of Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center. If you have comments on these films or have additional films to recommend, please include them in comments on this post. We added photos and links to Amazon.com for each of the titles so you can buy or rent them if you like.

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Films can provide an opportunity for insight, empathy and emotional catharsis for those of us who have survived suicide. Realistic illustrations of grief have not been an uncommon theme in films, notably Ordinary People (1980), The Accidental Tourist (1988), and In the Bedroom (2001), but only recently have filmmakers shown not only a deeper understanding of the issue of suicide and an appreciation of its complexity, but a willingness to examine the plight of the survivor.

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