Overview

Chooselife.org is dedicated to the fight against teen suicide. Our first project is a documentary film called “Tell My Story.” "Tell My Story" is a 90 minute documentary film focused on the teen suicide epidemic. The film’s title comes from my own story. My 14 year old son hung himself in the attic of our home while my wife and I were away on vacation. We had no idea that he was depressed, a little grumpy from time to time, yes, but depressed no. In his letters and texts he made it clear that he had gone out of his way to hide his true state. A few weeks after he passed, I was going through his room. I opened up a dresser drawer, it was empty except for two sticky notes. The first was a note he left with all of his usernames and passwords. The second was a simple sticky note that said “Tell My Story” Tell My Story will be about a father's journey to change the trajectory of teen suicide in the world, after the death of his 14 year old son. Ultimately the goal of the film is to help families see the signs that we did not see and to inspire them to act sooner with their own children. Suicide is a mental health issue but it’s not accurate to say that all teen mental health issues fall into the same bucket. In a case like my son, there was a deep dark hidden depression that enveloped him. He could not see any way out besides taking his own life. The statistics are unfathomable. Over 500k teens attempt suicide every year and 5000 succeed. Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death amongst teenagers and is up 70% since 2006. Tell My Story will inspire people to action in the communities and their own homes.