The 1950s-based film Living can offer a more positive space veterans lawyer Steven Baras-Miller feels our returned servicemen and women should be able to experience.
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Mr Baras-Miller is preparing to present the film in Regent Cinemas in partnership with Ballarat Veterans Assistance Centre and Legacy with a post-film panel discussion.
The event, in early March, is open to everybody - not just veterans and their families - in a bid to raise more awareness and discussion on the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide.
Living, starring Bill Nighy, is about a veteran public servant who in the wake of WWII receives a terminal diagnosis and for the first time in his life starts to live to the fullest.
"A lot of people leaving the army are expected all the time to talk in this 'dying' space - they are expected to talk about depression and PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] and then have to prove this with lots of forms," Mr Baras-Miller said.
"This film, while not about the military, is in a more positive space. Veterans should be in this space. This is where we should be getting to, aiming for, people living with the experience of trauma especially when they are engaging with DVA [Department of Veterans' Affairs] and other agencies."
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Defence and Veterans Legal Service, which Mr Baras-Miller represents, is screening the film across regional Victoria in a bid to get more people talk about what could be possible.
"I think nearly everybody has military connections. There will be people who we reach that don't even know it at the moment, but it will connect with them," Mr Baras-Miller said.
Defence and Veterans Legal Service will also host an information session for veterans and their families at Barkly Square on February 11. The session, followed by a barbecue at Ballarat Veterans Assistance Centre, will help make clear rights and responsibilities in submissions to the Royal Commission.
The special screening of Living is on March 5. Tickets via Regent Cinemas.
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