The Half Magic Initiative

In a small neighbourhood coffeeshop a lovely older woman came up to me and my children and told me that one day her children were little like mine and in the time it took for her to do a twirl they were grown up and gone. I had heard this many times yet why was it so hard to take in the pleasure and appreciate the preciousness of childhood and the noble role we parents have? Why are so many young parents stressed? Why are so many children stressed? How can I learn to really enjoy and savour the pleasure of raising my children?

So my husband and I, both having film careers, decided to research and create a documentary that would inspire and motivate parents to truly enjoy raising their children and as an added bonus inspire he and I along the way. Simple, right? Not exactly. Questions arose such as what is motivation and how do you maintain it? How do different cultures seek inspiration? What is the purpose of childhood? What is the purpose of parenting? Why are we ignoring the latest research on child development? What is family culture versus pop culture? And the list went on until we read, 'Geography of Hope' by Chris Turner and a light went on! Fighting global warming had to be the single most important task we could do as parents for our children! We were further intrigued when we realized our research on health, happiness, protecting childhood, education, community and especially a child's mental and physical development were all connected to a sustainable lifestyle. We were ecstatic- we had found the motivation. Yet, why were we still not role modeling a sustainable lifestyle, why were we- the ones who had done all this research, still not actively pursuing a greener lifestyle? Well, then we discovered Dr.Bruce Lipton and finally we had a better sense of why it is such a battle to change our beliefs on raising children. He doesn't offer an answer but he offers us insight and knowledge is empowering.

It is our hope that this film will offer knowledge to empower you on your journey of parenthood and to help us all create a thriving, beautiful future for our children.

This is a grassroots initiative started by Jennifer Deathe and David Till.

Jennifer Deathe: Co-Producer, Co-Director, Writer. She has worked in film since 1993 as an assistant director on such films as Good Will Hunting, Half Baked, Kung Fu, The Legend Continues, American Psycho, an actor, and produced a pilot for a lifestyle show. She has organized a conference on ‘play’ and has researched the subject matter for over two years. She holds a degree in Political Science and English Lit from Trinity College, University of Toronto.

David Till: Producer. Currently a film producer at QVF Inc. He is a veteran film-maker with 25 years of production management and has recently produced two shows for Hallmark Productions.