Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) welcomes Callawegians to a one-of-a-kind film experiment 6:30 p.m., April 25th at the Brick District Playhouse.
"We're gonna be showing a film called 'Remembering Trauma' and it is the story of the impact of complex trauma and the life of a child as they grow up in it," CASA representative Angela Carson said.
The movie is composed of two shorts. One tells the life of a foster care child and the other "has trauma specialists who give their perspective on what happened to the life of this young man," according to Carson, who would like to add as a warning that "trauma will flash" in both shorts.
At the end of the shorts, there will be a community discussion over what the audience watched and childhood trauma in general, Carson said. To her knowledge, no one in central Missouri has replicated this experience, except for CASA's work at the Ragtag Cinema in Columbia last year.
"We will have a professional counselor... an attorney for foster care children... (and) a former foster youth," Carson said.
Carson is hopeful that by having this movie experiment, the local community will come together to support an organization seeking "donations and volunteers," Carson said.
As a native to a small town, Carson said about them "when they care about something... you rally together... there's room for people to care about more than one issue."
Carson said she feels the momentum gathering as more people say 'I've never heard of CASA... I didn't know how many kids are in foster care.'
The reason why it is so unheard of is, according to Carson, because "there's a lot of privacy issues (with foster children) naturally, which is a good thing, but that's the reason why their voice isn't heard."
"When hearing Walter (the former foster child who will talk at the end of the film) I hope its gonna light a fire in their hearts... that's my hope," Carson said.
"Cinema and film can really tell a story in powerful way -- what children go through -- in ways words cannot. So even if the talk doesn't work, the film will," Carson added.
Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the door or online.
April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. CASA is raising funds with a goal of $15,000 to "continue to give more children the powerful advocacy they need through a CASA volunteer," CASA's website states.
"I'm excited to see what Callaway will do in the days ahead," Carson said.