BOZEMAN — September is National Suicide Prevention Month—providing the opportunity to reflect on the stigma around mental health. "Feel It All" is a film bringing this conversation to the Emerson Theater in Bozeman.
Drew Petersen is a professional skier, filmmaker, and speaker from Silverthorne, Colorado—who just three years ago reinvented his professional ski platform to affect cultural change around mental health.
"Growing up in a ski town, this is very representative of the mountain west—much like Bozeman—where we are quite literally living through a mental health and suicide crisis," says Petersen.
Data from a 2020 Department of Health and Human Services report reveals that Montana has one the highest rates of suicide in the nation—leading many like Drew to expand the conversation on mental health.
He says, "By doing so, on an individual level, the goal is for people to feel seen and that they’re not alone. Whether that be in their own struggles or whether that be in how they see their community struggling, which we are seeing."
Petersen’s film chronicles his journey through depression as he competes in the Leadville Trail 100 ultra-marathon, highlighting the revelations he has had along the way.
"It really is something I hold through my life—is to feel it all," Drew says. "I spent so much of my life trying to escape and to numb away the human experience, and now the whole point of this is to feel the whole spectrum of that human experience because there’s value from everything within that."
"Feel It All" will premier Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m. at the Emerson in Bozeman.
TRAILER FOOTAGE COURTESY OF DREW PETERSEN
The film is supported by Bozeman Health, Charlie Health, and Suffer Out Loud
Learn more about Drew Petersen here.
Buy tickets for Feel It All here.
