Holding Our Own

"I wanted to find a way to use art and music to bring an audience into a subject that might not otherwise be easy to talk about. I want to see how we can bring an awareness of our death to everyday life. We all have anxiety and resistance and doubt. My intention is to get families talking about this." Filmmaker Camilla Rockwell

Come join us on February 4, 6 - 8 pm, at Brooks Memorial Library to watch Holding Our Own: Embracing the End of Life. This event is part of our Taking Solace series. The inspiring one-hour documentary by Camilla Rockwell features the work of local artist Deidre Scherer and the music of Center for Solace chorus Hallowell. After the screening, there will be a community dialogue about the unique power of the arts to help offer solace in difficult times. Members of Hallowell will join us.

[from Rutland Herald] "The film explores the remarkably reverent, meticulous portraits of the dying that renowned local fiber artist Deidre Scherer creates and the positively divine intonations of Hallowell, a Windham County choral group that devotes most of its musical artistry to hospice, following both artist and singers from bedside to bereavement." ~Anne Lawrence Guyon, Rutland Herald, published March 29, 2007

[from Boston Globe] "The 57-minute documentary focuses on the work of Deidre Scherer, a Vermont artist who works with fabric and thread to create quilt-like portraits of older people. It also focuses on the music of the Hallowell singers, a Brattleboro-based choral group that visits people who are dying.

Scherer is shown creating her artwork in her studio and making sketches at people's bedsides. 'I've noticed that dying of a full life is still a rather taboo subject,' Scherer says, turning the phrase "dying of old age" on its head. 'There's a lot of information and a lot of visualization of dying violently, whereas most of us, over 85 percent of us, are going to actually live a full life.'

One Hallowell choir member says in the film that for her, singing in nursing homes and hospices 'has something to do with the fact that we want to be closer to our own death and dying, we want to be closer to when our loved ones are leaving and when we ourselves go. We want to have some role in it, we want to have some responsibility again.'" ~Leslie Brokaw, Boston Globe, published October 21, 2007