Lost Property: Therapeutic Creativity and the Stuff of Grief


Does reimagining our losses as fictional stories help us to express and process our emotions or offer a temporary form of escape? Are there any risks in drawing on personal experiences of grief when making art?

In 2018, Jimmy Hay, Lesel Dawson and Natasha Rosling led a team of collaborators to produce a short fiction film, funded by the Brigstow Institute. Starring Julie Cox and Danielle Bjelic, Lost Property interwove the filmmakers’ personal stories and reflections into a fictional narrative, using important spaces and objects as locations and props. In this panel, two of the film’s directors and one of the leading actors come together to discuss the process of creating the short film and what the experience taught them about art, grief, and collaborative research. They will also consider how stories, physical objects and places can allow us to connect with (and sometimes change) our imaginative relationship to those who have died.

The panel will open with the first-ever showing of Lost Property. We can’t wait to share it with you.

Panel members: Dr Lesel Dawson, Dr Jimmy Hay, and Julie Cox (actor).
Please note: This discussion was originally held on 5 May 2022 as part of Dying Matters week. At the time of the original discussion, the film Lost Property was under consideration at film festivals, and as such we are unable to screen it in full here on The Grief Channel. Thank you for your understanding.

Facilitators

Dr Lesel Dawson

Dr Jimmy Hay

Dr Jimmy Hay