About

Narrated by Rosie Perez, the 12 minute film is available to families, educators and mental health professionals to model how to be a friend just by showing up and sharing.

The story recognizes and honors the time and energy it takes to come through trauma. We hope to release the story in a children's book in the future.

SYNOPSIS

Joey experiences a terrible thing and "Everybody saw it. Everybody knew." One day, after the terrible thing happens, Joey wakes up to find a huge bag of coal next to his bed. He has to carry it with him everywhere he goes.

Joey grows up to become a storyteller who helps others tell their stories. When Joey eventually tells his own story of the "terrible thing," he finds out that others carry their own bags of coal. When Joey opens his bag of coal to examine the lumps, he learns that, one by one, they don’t seem so heavy. And he encourages his friends to examine their bags of coal as well.

As Joey’s story unfolds, winter turns to spring, gardens bloom and the bag of coal transforms into a balloon that lifts Joey joyously above the town and “Everybody saw him. Everybody knew.”