Blue and Jason Gerber · 37 min
When award-winning filmmakers stumbled into a luxury handbag designer's studio, they discovered a decade-long story of grief, art, and radical forgiveness that took nine years to bring to screen.
Hear this story
Blue and Jason Gerber walked into a studio looking for a five-minute commercial about a maker. What they found instead was a decade-long story about grief, art, and what happens after tragedy.
They met Shelley, a luxury handbag designer in Chicago whose sister was murdered by an intimate partner. When they asked how she got started, she told them about her sister's death and her work with a domestic violence shelter. Within a month of filming, Blue and Jason knew this was a feature film. What drew them was not the crime or the court case, but the harder, less-told part: how someone heals and persists when they are left behind. How they rebuild. How they grieve.
Over nearly four years of production and another four in post-production, Blue and Jason witnessed Shelley transform her pain into her craft. They followed her to Italy to study handbag design. They asked her deeper questions about her collection, Dawn Dusk, and discovered she had been watching sunrise and sunset every day after the murder because they were the only consistent things in her fractured world. The filmmakers chose to edit the story thematically rather than linearly, with Shelley's hairstyles shifting between scenes, because that is how grief actually works: in twists and turns, not in a straight line.
One moment changed everything for Blue and Jason. They witnessed Shelley choose to pray forgiveness over the man who killed her sister. Not to say what he did was okay, but to free herself from the weight of carrying bitterness. That choice gave them words for their own experiences of forgiveness and the lightness that comes from letting go. The film is a story about how breaking can make you stronger, and how the cracks in your life, when held with care, can become the most beautiful part of who you are.
⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses domestic & family violence and grief & loss, which some listeners may find distressing.
If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available: • 1800RESPECT (family, domestic & sexual violence): 1800 737 732 · 1800respect.org.au • Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au • GriefLine: 1300 845 745 · griefline.org.au
“we were observing her process of grief and healing pouring into her art”
“forgiveness was not about saying that the other what the other person did was okay, but that it was about freeing her from the burden from carrying this burden of revenge and of bitterness and just the weight of it”
“the story doesn't end with sort of the quote unquote justice being served. The story continues.”
The hero, today
Blue and Jason went looking for a five-minute commercial about a maker and found themselves holding the story of a woman rebuilding her life after her sister was murdered by an intimate partner. The story Blue and Jason wanted to tell was not about whether justice was served, but about what happens next: how someone grieves, persists, and heals when they are left behind. Blue and Jason chose to edit the film thematically rather than linearly because they realized that is how humans actually process grief and loss, in twists and turns, not in a straight line from start to finish. Watching Shelley's choice to pray forgiveness over the man who murdered her sister gave Blue and Jason words and clarity for their own experiences of forgiveness, and the freedom that comes from choosing it. Blue and Jason spent nearly four years filming and another four in post-production because they believed the story needed that length and care to be told well, and because they wanted to honour both Shelley and the audience with their work.
Yes. Blue and Jason Gerber is a real person who shared their own story in their own words. Kintsugi Heroes is a not-for-profit that shares first-person stories of overcoming adversity, told with the person's consent.
Kintsugi Heroes, a registered Australian not-for-profit. Every story is shared with the hero's own consent and reviewed under Kintsugi Heroes' trauma-informed content standard before it goes public.
Blue and Jason went looking for a five-minute commercial about a maker and found themselves holding the story of a woman rebuilding her life after her sister was murdered by an intimate partner.
The story Blue and Jason wanted to tell was not about whether justice was served, but about what happens next: how someone grieves, persists, and heals when they are left behind.
Blue and Jason chose to edit the film thematically rather than linearly because they realized that is how humans actually process grief and loss, in twists and turns, not in a straight line from start to finish.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 00:03
Welcome to the Grit Diaries with Mon and Maz, a place where we share real stories meets real transformation. Each episode, we share the journeys of everyday people who's faced life's hardest moments and found their way to hope, healing, and purpose. May their courage inspire you and in the world around you. Let's get inspired! Today we really do have a special treat for you. We have guests all the way from the USA, Blue and Jason Gerber. Blue and Jason Gerber are the film producers, directors for the incredible documentary Dawn Dusk. It's a story based around A woman that experienced tremendous grief and loss of losing her dear sister to domestic violence. And it follows her journey, looking at her creative ability that was instrumental in helping her move through this experience and moving all the way to forgiveness and ultimately shifting her direction in her career. I have had the privilege of watching it and it's really worth getting onto it. They haven't done many Australian interviews, so I feel very privileged that Mon and I were able to be there to have a conversation with the two of them. So with that, sit back and enjoy this interview. I really got so much out of it and I'm sure you will too. Hello everyone and welcome to the Grit Diaries, from Grit to Grace with Mon and Maz. We are here today with some very, very special guests and quite late at night as well. We have the wonderful Jason and Blue Gerber. Welcome to the studio, guys.
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 02:03
Thank you for having us. We're excited to be here.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 02:06
It's great to have you. And these guys have very generously spending their time. It's 10 o'clock over in LA, I believe.
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 02:14
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Watching Shelley's choice to pray forgiveness over the man who murdered her sister gave Blue and Jason words and clarity for their own experiences of forgiveness, and the freedom that comes from choosing it.
This conversation includes walking into an open studio, coffee, and a story they weren't expecting, realizing this is a feature film, why stories don't end with justice, six years of filming and building and coming home from filming needing to decompress.
Yes.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 02:14
Amazing. Oh, we really appreciate having you here. And Blue and Jason are filmmakers, and they are hubby and wife duo as well, which is territory that not everybody can canvas. So kudos to the two of you for doing this project. I believe it's been quite a number of years in the making with the movie that we're going to be talking about today, and that movie is called Dawn Dusk. I love that, and it obviously encompasses so much within, in that, and I'm really looking forward to unpacking it all. Today with you guys. So welcome and thank you for being here.
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 02:50
Thank you.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 02:51
So I just wanted to start off with what life was like for the two of you in the lead-up to meeting the main character. And this is all based on a true story. And, you know, our story is about From Grit to Grace, and this really canvases— it's a very surprising documentary film that's based around a beautiful human being in Chicago, and she as a luxury handbag designer who's extremely passionate, but sadly goes through the brutal death of her beautiful sister, her mentor, through domestic violence. And what that, you know, how that she used her art and her craft to be able to work through that grief and the loss. So for any of you here that, as we're talking about these themes, obviously we can reach out to Lifeline if we need. And so I'm wondering what drew the two of you to such a human story in around this, and actually how the two of you actually met Shelley in the first place.
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 04:01
It's kind of a funny story because we kind of say that we accidentally made a documentary, because when we When we came across Shelley, when we kind of met Shelley for the first time, at the time we were, you know, filmmakers. We work in commercials kind of as our bread and butter. And at the time we were hoping to make a sort of 5-minute video piece for our portfolio about some kind of maker doing something. And We just so happened to be invited to an open studio that Shelley was having, and we walked into the space and we were just really struck by how beautiful everything was. You know, the space is all white, her bags were very striking and elegant, and she herself was kind of the most magnetic person in the room. And so That evening we actually approached her and said, you know, "Hey, what would you think about us doing a little 5-minute video piece about you?" And she was interested and said, "Let's get coffee and chat about it." So later that week we got coffee and, you know, asked her, "How did you get started doing this?" And what she told us was the story of her sister and her sister's murder and how she now donates part of the proceeds from every bag to a domestic violence shelter a shelter that she was also volunteering at, at the time. And, you know, it was a really odd response to that question because it— I actually didn't really answer her question.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 05:48
And it would have just come out of complete left field.
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 05:50
Yeah. Yes, yes, very much so. And so, you know, we, we didn't really know how to process that information or what to do with it, but we were very moved by it, very, very moved by it. And so We started filming with her and quickly realized that story that she told us, this legacy of her sister and, you know, what she was processing through really actually was in every aspect of her business and what she was doing. And we began to kind of see how it was influencing her art and the bags that she was creating and her designs very directly. In ways that she didn't necessarily have words for at the time. And just kind of, we were observing her process of grief and healing pouring into her art. And we thought that that was really interesting and really powerful. And so I think about a month in, we, approached her and said, "So we think this is going to be a feature film. How do you feel about that?" And she was, you know, always very, very graciously on board. But we really just felt like this was a powerful story. And it was a story that isn't told very often. You know, I think Jason could talk a little bit more about, you know, how we often hear about stories of justice being served, but we don't often see what happens after that, you know, with those who remain. Yeah. You wanna talk more about that? Yeah, I think that we are always attracted to stories, I think just by the nature of our own experiences, attracted to stories with redemption built in. And so often the story that was normally told that our society loves is, you know, that justice is served, like Blu said, this person gets what they had coming to them. They go to jail, something, whatever the punishment needed is. And Shelley actually talks about this in the film, that the story goes on, that we don't hear the story of like, how do you persist? How do you remain? How do you heal? How do you grieve for those who are left behind? And I think that's a really important part of the story. The story doesn't end with sort of the quote unquote justice being served. The story continues And I think we need to celebrate and share and go on those journeys together as people after that happens. And in order to do that well, we need to tell that story. So that's one of the things that really drew us to it was that the sort of untold, in our minds, not told very often on the screen at least.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 08:46
And to that point, I actually want to say thank you. You know, my background as a registered nurse and in coaching and, you know, having that human connection, the human spirit, you know, Human connection is one of the highest values that we can have, and to see it showcased in art form and having an outward expression of that that people can connect with on a screen really does bring it to another level. And using your medium in filmmaking, you know, I don't know about you, but there seems to be this range of emotion that we're allowed to have when we're living our everyday life, and it's pretty tight. And so to me, my feeling has always been when I see see art or go to watch a film, it gives me permission to be human and to feel. And everybody else in, in the audience, that they might cry when maybe they might normally not cry about something, that they will contain that emotion. And so it gives us a space where we can actually connect and think about life much more deeply. And it's done in such an unusual and unique way And I really appreciate the weaving of Shelley's life and the surprise element that you guys have managed to canvas throughout the movie. And I'm really curious, what happened when you've gone from being traditionally sort of, you know, as you say, your bread and butter was commercials, and then a month into it, you guys have sat down, you go, we're actually going to approach Shelley and say, what made the two of you guys decide we actually want to have a crack at doing the film, the documentaries. And us Aussies say funny words like have a crack.
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 10:28
We get it. We get what you're saying. Well, I think that we wanted to have a crack at making the documentary. I think that we have always found ourselves to be storytellers and we have, you know, commercials are, they can be good, good for, you know, making a living, but we always on the lookout for creative opportunities and stories that we could tell for ourselves. Much in the same way that Shelley in the movie talks about how she uses her design and her bag making to express herself. Filmmaking is a way to express ourselves, and we can do that in commercials to some extent, but you're limited by the client, you're limited by the brief, you're limited by those things. And suddenly we had an untold story in front of us that was moving us and stirring our spirits, and we felt we had an opportunity not only to do important work of sharing an important story, but also to, like, meet a need of our own to be able to express something from ourselves as well. Yeah, I would say even though we direct commercials, first and foremost, we are filmmakers. And, you know, that's always been the dream for us. And, you know, commercials just was something to begin working in as we were pursuing our, you know, other longer creative pursuits that, you know, are kind of longer-term projects. And so I think when we came across this story, well, one, I think we realized, you know, to tell this story well, it needed to be in a feature format, like it needed to have that length to be able to tell it well. And so to honor that story, we we wanted to, you know, put in the work that it would take to create a feature-length story about this. And so there was both, you know, us just passionate filmmakers excited to do this and then also wanting to honor the story that was in front of us. Yeah.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 12:35
Beautiful. Amazing. Thank you for sharing. And so Jason and Blue, when you embarked on this journey, If I got it right, it was about a 6-year journey that you've had with getting the film ready?
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 12:50
It was about 3, almost 4 years of production and then about the same amount for post-production. And then we had about a year long of festivals and then it was another year kind of signing with our distributor and getting things ready for that. So the actual like making of the film took about 6 years, 6 or 7 years. 6 or 7, but then since the very beginning when we started filming, it's, it's been 9 years now. So yeah.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 13:23
Wow. And it launches this year. Yeah, it does. So tell me what the challenges were when you were actually in production. What was coming up with you that surprised you that you weren't expecting, whether that be from, I guess, from a craft perspective, or, you know, what was happening for the two of you internally that you weren't expecting on an emotive? Because no doubt the kind of content that you were dealing with and the actual interaction with, you know, Shelley that's actually experienced the pain and the trauma and watching her go through this, I imagine it must have been really challenging.
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 14:00
Yeah. At times, yeah. Filmmaking is, in this way, is both— I always say that filmmaking is a lens for empathy. So we're in the room and we are trying to put ourselves in the shoes of Shelley and trying to understand her and trying to ask questions and trying to be sort of entrenched in her story. So there is a challenge in sort of facing that kind of emotional experience, obviously from a secondary perspective, but that— where there were definitely many days when we came home from filming and really felt like we needed to decompress and to process and to take time to understand, you know, what we were feeling and experiencing because of you know, the stories and the things that we had witnessed over those times of filming. And then on top of that, filmmaking is a puzzle. It's always solving, it's solving a problem and it's putting together a puzzle. So during production, we are trying to figure, you know, we don't know the end of the story. That's the hard part. With a narrative script, you kind of know what you need to get. With documentary, we're always kind of guessing, making our best educated guesses to try to understand what the story is going to need without forcing our hand on the story. And then kind of paying attention to where the story is going and being able to sort of adjust quickly and pivot to a different approach should we need to pivot to a different approach.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 15:31
It was unraveling as well, wasn't it, while you're actually in production?
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 15:36
Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. Yeah, that there were some twists. So along the way, yeah.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 15:44
And even going to, did I understand correctly when you went to Italy that you followed Shelley off to Italy to do her, be with other people and learning, you know, the art and craft of handbag design and making, that that would have been an unexpected even in that?
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 16:01
Yes. Yeah. We always say if you are surprised by that in the film, that's because we were too. Because yeah, it was, you know, it did kind of come very suddenly. And we, you know, Shelley was always informing us of things. And, you know, we weren't necessarily constantly filming with her, but she was always keeping us apprised of things that were happening in her life so that we could, you know, come and film with her. And so The decision to go to Italy was, yeah, was a surprise for us. And I think it was a little bit of a surprise for her as well. You know, as you kind of see in the film. But yeah, we just, yeah, you just kind of, that's the beauty of documentary is you just, you keep going and you follow along.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 16:55
Yeah, and it's actually quite a pivotal part in the story as well, I found when I watched it.
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 17:02
Yeah, it's where the movie switches from becoming sort of this nonlinear journey where we're kind of mixing present day with the past and we sort of catch up and suddenly we're in truly real time. And it's like a very— the kind of— that is sort of the crux of the story in terms of her journey and the kind of next big surprise that happens on the other side of Italy in the film stems directly from that time.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 17:31
Amazing. And, you know, I mean, I have to say, just on the fact that it was Italy, not a bad decision to go there, by the way. Yes, my husband's Italian, so it's, it's beautiful. It's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. So where did you find in the documentary that things started to shift and where the real story of the grief and loss and how Shelley was beginning to really dive into how that was affecting her and her artwork. And what were you wanting to— the audience to experience as a result of that and learn, perhaps?
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 18:17
Yeah, we kind of had been observing and asking Shelley a lot of questions about her inspiration behind the, you know, the collection Dawn Dusk. And she was speaking, you know, was telling us all about how she was really inspired by sunrise and sunset. And as we kept talking to her about that and kind of, you know, asking her, well, why, why are you so Why are you inspired by sunrise and sunset? And she would say, well, you know, it's because I was watching the sun rising and setting very consistently right after the murder happened because it was the only really consistent thing in my life at the time. And so we were like, hmm, okay. And so it was interesting because she wasn't necessarily saying, like, drawing the connection between the grief and the designs, you know, being based on dawn and dusk and that dawn and dusk were like a really important thing for her healing process. And so that's when we decided to take that. There's a scene in the film where on this walk and talk, as we call it, this walk with her by the lakeside and we're talking to her and she's talking about the importance of dawn and dusk. And so that, that was when we decided that we wanted to do that and kind of dive a little deeper into, you know, what that connection between grief and dawn and dusk and her designs. So that's what you see in that moment where she talks about how important Dawn and dusk is to her, not just as an inspiration, but as kind of a practice of healing and a practice of processing through her grief, just the practice of going and observing the sunrise and sunset. And, you know, and then of course in that conversation, so much else came out through that as well.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 20:29
I have to say that working with women through the Women's Resilience Centre, that saying that this too will pass and that the sun will come up again tomorrow seems to be what gives so many people hope.
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 20:48
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 20:49
Mm-hmm.
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 20:50
Yeah.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 20:50
And it's, you know, when you think dawn, you know, the new day begins, it's dusk, you know, it's grief can be, look different every single day. It's bookend every single day, you know, and it's whatever happens within that timeframe. And, you know, grief is, I know all of we know, all of us know here that it's never linear.
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 21:11
Yes. Yeah.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 21:13
And it can look different on different days, different environments, a new insight, a new perspective. So I love that theme. And I love that that whole theme is weaved right throughout with the bags, with the handbags, with the environment and how she's actually used nature as a way to find some sense. At the end of the day, we're all trying to find meaning because if we're left with no meaning, like, why did something happen and what are we going to do with it? If you're left suspended in midair, it just makes no sense and it's senseless, which, yes, it is. However, if we can then process it in a way that we find something within ourselves that brings some meaning, it gives us that ability to feel hope that maybe I can go on. So, you know, I think you've showcased that beautifully.
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 22:02
Thank you. Yeah, we actually— one of the kind of subtle ways that we kind of show the fact that grief is nonlinear is in the way that the film is edited. So if you notice, the film is told, or the story's told in a nonlinear fashion. So, you know, there—
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 22:23
you'll—
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 22:24
we'll cut literally from one interview to the next where she has completely different hairstyles. But we wanted, you know, we wanted that to reflect in the film. And we also just realized that to tell this story well, we needed to tell it thematically rather than linearly. And I think that's really a reflection of her processing process that, you know, she would process things kind of thematically in her own, you know, journey. And I think that's really human. I don't think that we like, opera, we don't process our emotions and our grief and our journey towards healing in a point A to point B. We just don't do that. Like, it's, it is so twisty turny. And I think that we don't give ourselves permission to do that enough. And so I hope that people, when they see it, they can kind of see this sort of twist and turns and kind of feel that's natural. Yeah, and I just want— I also wanted to just comment on something that you said, Simone, about the women that you work with, and I think that is so true. You know, one of the things that Shelley— the really dark place that she was sitting in was this place of, you know, well, if he's capable of that, then what am I capable of? What is my husband capable of? You know, and just like kind of questioning everything around her and You know, that's one of the reasons why the consistency of sunrise and sunset was such a healing thing for her, because it was like trustworthy. It was like reliable. Yeah, reliable. Exactly. Yeah.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 24:08
And when everything else is crazy, you know that sun's going to come up, you know that sun's going to go down.
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 24:16
It really is security.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 24:18
Isn't it?
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 24:20
Yes, definitely. It sounds so simple, but I think it's really rich, actually.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 24:28
And perhaps just on that point too, is as kids we sort of lean into the magic and mysticism of nature just naturally, and we kind of lose it as we all start to get hectic and busy and other things take priority. And it's moments like these and times like this that Somehow we lean into it a bit more. We look at that sunrise a little bit longer. We think about it. We contemplate a little bit longer because we're searching for something to— and we, we do sort of find the awe again of something that just happens for all of us every single day. And I guess sometimes again, in trying to find meaning is allowing us that space to kind of come back to that essential nature of ourselves. We hope so. If we talked about what surprised you both about along this journey, and when we look at— and I guess I'm wondering about when you might have been dealing with any sort of issues that you might have had with your own grief and loss in, in certain areas of your own life, and how this may have affected you, maybe helped you look at your own situations in perhaps a new perspective. What was happening for you on that front that surprised you and that you were able to take away for yourselves?
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 25:51
Yeah, I think at the time it was mostly just confirming things that we had been kind of feeling ourselves in our own personal journeys. You know, one of the things that happens in the film is that Shelley ends up praying a prayer of forgiveness over the man who murdered her sister. And she talks a lot about how, you know, she realized that forgiveness was not about saying that the other— what the other person did was okay, but that it was about freeing her from the burden, from carrying this burden of, you know, revenge and of bitterness and just the weight of it. And so she talks about the freedom that she found in that choice. And, you know, for me personally, and I won't speak for you, Jason, but I'm sure you can relate, you know, I've had many moments in my life where I've had to, or not had to, where I've chosen to forgive someone who has wronged me. And some moments have been worse than others. You know, some have been very hard childhood wounds that I have chosen to forgive. But the forgiveness, I think witnessing Shelley's story, it just put more words, more clarity to that decision of saying like, oh yeah, like that really is how it feels. It feels like I have, you know, opened the door from that prison and just I'm walking and in that freedom now. And so, yeah, so I think for me, it was just kind of confirming those things and encouraging me in those things. And yeah, and so I think mostly during the filming, that was, that was kind of what was going on for me. And I think this story will continue to have impact on my life, on our lives, you know, as we grow, like I've I have processed through some grief myself and have thought of, you know, Shelley's journey in the nonlinear form of grief during it. And if we learned nothing about like how to journey through grief, we didn't learn anything at all. Exactly. Yeah. You know, it's—
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 28:25
We're sending you back to the drawing board, guys. Yeah.
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 28:30
Yeah, you know, it's like, it's sometimes it's a little hard to relate to the weight of the loss, of her loss. You know, I haven't lost a sibling. She did. And I have, I've, haven't known anyone who has been murdered. And so that, you know, thankfully. And so it's like, in some ways I can't even imagine what that kind of grief would be like and what kind of, what kind of, loss that would be like. But I can, you know, make this film about her and learn about it and empathize with it and, you know, witness her experience and hold space for that and take that experience into my own. Like, I don't want to say lesser version because there's no lesser version. Your own experience. My own experiences of grief.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 29:24
Yes.
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 29:25
Yes. Yeah.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 29:26
I just want to say, listening to you, it does trigger people I know who have experienced people that have passed because of the trauma of domestic violence.
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 29:44
And I want to note on this, Kintsugi Heroes, if you're listening, please note that You can reach out anytime to Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 29:59
And I really appreciate you sharing that too, because for me, the forgiveness piece in the documentary was probably one of the biggest pieces that I think that we can take away and contemplate where we sit with that in our own lives. And I love that the two of you, you know, Blue, you're sharing, you know, that was the part for you. It's you know, wow, you know, there's, there's parts of our own lives, all to sort of larger, lesser degrees, you know. How much are we holding on to resentment? How are we holding on to the little things? And when you see someone that's gone through such a magnitude of an experience that most of us would be forever embittered by something like that and just in a continuous cycle, that we just— the flare-up of emotion would just, you know, you run that risk. And isn't it the case that it's the movies, the documentaries, the ones that are brave enough to dive into forgiveness as the choice? And it is a choice, isn't it? It really is. It is a conscious choice because it's not necessarily the first go-to response. And I love that, you know, Shelley herself really showcased what that gave her, and it was a lightness. It was a true lightness. And to that point, we had someone on recently, and his talk about— he used the expression by Martin Luther King: in darkness, darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can, you know. Hatred can't drive out hate, only love can. And you know, if we're joining in in that unforgiveness and that bitterness, we somehow seem to add to the energy of that. So I really appreciate it. And for me, if I'm allowed to say, just on a personal note, there's been a lot of personal work that I did, and in choosing a very specific forgiveness process that I went through was the most healing, most freeing, most light-filled experience. And it actually paved the way for something that I wasn't anticipating of having the joy of looking after my loved one, a family member that without having gone through that forgiveness piece, it would've been a very different experience. And so I am forever grateful and know the power of leaning into forgiveness. So for you to showcase on in a very real, very authentic way not a light and fluffy, a very genuine someone having to dig deep and what that meant for them, for Shelley. So thank you.
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 32:47
Yeah, and thanks for sharing your story.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 32:48
Yeah, I actually have written about the forgiveness, and just a quote that I actually wanted to share with you, and it's by Mark Twain, and this really resonates: Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violent sheds on the heel that crushed it. And you know, you could, you could focus on the violet that's actually completely obliterated. It is smashed. It doesn't look anything like what it used to. It is no longer able to function as it used to as a flower. But what's left, if you're willing to look, is the fragrance that gets released only as a result of that being crushed, which is that willingness to focus on that, and in this case the forgiveness, is a big task of anybody. So yeah, yeah. Sim, did you have anything to add? This Dawn to Dusk film just is so intriguing.
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 33:45
I'm sure many viewers can't wait to see it, and the availability of it— is it easy for our viewers and our listeners to track it down? Yeah, it's going to be available in a number of places. I think in Australia, I believe you'll be able to watch it, I think on Roku, because I think Roku's worldwide, and as well as a streaming service called Fawcett. You'll be able to find it on another one called Ganjing World, and it'll be available for purchase, I believe, on Amazon. Every region's different, so I know that there's a couple of channels in the US that we're on that I don't think will be on in Australia, but definitely those channels are— it'll be on Roku channel, just free with ads, so you can just click the link and watch it. And, uh, we'd love to hear what people think about it as they check it out. Yeah.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 34:34
And then just a funny question: has anybody ever thought that you look a bit like Ed Sheeran?
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 34:39
Yes, I have heard that before. When my hair is long like this, it definitely— I definitely get the Ed Sheeran references.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 34:49
You must be thankful for his success.
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 34:53
He's a pretty talented man. Yes.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 34:56
Well, guys, we really, really enjoyed speaking with you today, and I'm so grateful that we have connected and been able to showcase the upcoming film documentary called Dawn Dusk that showcases Shelley Look's experience with grief and loss on losing her beloved sister to domestic violence and what choices she made in that time. And really touches the heart of the human spirit. And again, circumnavigating back to what we all need is connection. And she went on to do some work and for organization WINGS over in, in her hometown in Chicago. And, you know, I had a look on their website and looking at the statistics over in America, was it 9— every 9 seconds a woman is, is abused in some shape or form. And Sim, I'm sure, you know, you would know a lot about this space in all that, being the founder of the Women's Resilience Center over here in Australia. It's really wonderful to hear you, and I'm sure many women who hear this will look at a pink sky and feel hope and can't wait to watch that film Dawn to Dusk. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. It must be about 11 o'clock at night over there, so I really appreciate your time. And we look forward to showcasing it with all us Aussies over here.
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 36:25
Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for having us.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 36:33
Thank you for joining us on The Grit Diaries: From Grit to Grace. If today's story has moved you, share it with someone who needs a little hope.
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 36:42
Remember, from grit we can find grace, and from grace we can find inspiration.
Mon & Mazz (Host) · 36:47
Inspiration. Until next time, look for the joy, keep safe, stay grounded, and never forget that there is a strength within your own story.
Blue and Jason Gerber (Guest) · 36:58
Take care.
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