Call us sentimental but every year at this time when we’re heading up our local trail and see that, seemingly overnight, dog owners have decorated a wild tree with photographs of their dearly departed pets…well, we tear up.

Too sweet, really, and a clear statement about how dogs have become family members for so many people in our urbanized, sometimes alienated society.

So we put up posters asking the midnight decorating crew to do the deed in daylight hours when we could film for our upcoming documentary Dog Dazed.

Among the folks who came to hang a decoration in honour of their dearly departed pets, 80-year-old Anne who hasn’t actually owned a dog for years but still walks the trail most days with a pocketful of treats for her doggie pals. She makes everybody’s day a little brighter, especially the furry folk!

This is a great honour for Bountiful Films, and we are thrilled that Hilary Stanton’s story, and Helen Slinger’s storytelling, have been recognized.

We’re looking forward to the awards, but certainly wish that Hilary could enjoy this moment with us….

I’ve heard from therapists who work with DID clients, spouses and partners seeking information for their loved ones who suffer with DID and are having trouble finding adequate treatment, from former clients, and from friends and strangers alike who have offered their congratulations.

I told Helen Slinger the night of the premiere in Vancouver that she had been successful in creating a most important film that would certainly achieve what Hilary and I wanted – to educate both the public and the therapeutic community about Dissociative Identity Disorder and its treatment.

Hilary was adamant that professionals needed to be educated as to the legitimacy of the DID diagnosis, so that she and others who suffered like her would no longer be dismissed by the psychiatric community as imagining their condition or as malingering, or told as she once was by a psychiatrist to “get over it – it’s water under the bridge.” She also wanted the public to be informed – to know that DID was not a myth, and also that it was nothing to be afraid of.

Especially though, Hilary wanted to give a message of hope to others who have suffered extreme and repeated abuse in childhood, that they can be helped, and that if they persist in their treatment with a professional who has expertise, that they, too, can recover and be well and strong and whole.

I know that, like me, Hilary would have been thrilled with the positive responses to her film. I am so sad that she isn’t here with us to share the success of this project, which is also a celebration of her courage and determination. I’m sad for her foreshortened life, and for the loss of her wonderful spirit in our world. And I agree with the psychologist from Saskatoon who said to her DID clients after hearing the radio interview, “We have a hero!” It appears now that it is not only Hilary’s dear friends who see her as Superstar.     - Cheryl Malmo, February 2011

When the Devil Knocks is available for online viewing now at The Passionate Eye website. Please contact us if you would like to purchase the DVD.

“I am making up posters to put up around town telling people when it is showing!

… it is hard to miss her so much just when I finally had her, not only the really cool person to know, but the mother I’d always yearned for – but it is more our loss than hers… she had become well and happy, seen her life’s work completed, and was in the place she loved best, with the person she loved most, apparently even listening to their favourite song. She was given a really hard life, and she kicked its butt! I miss the heck out of her, but I am happy for her too.” – Jenny

Jenny, we’ll do our best to get Hilary’s story as far out into the world as we can. – Helen Slinger

When the Devil Knocks – Wednesday January 26 at 10 pm ET and PT on CBC News Network’s The Passionate Eye.

Did you know that dissociative identity disorder is about as common as bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia?

Or that our personalities actually start out fractured…and normally integrate as we age?

Find out much more about dissociative identity disorder and the making of When the Devil Knocks when you listen to Helen Slinger and Radio Canada International’s Marc Montgomery.

When the Devil Knocks airs Wednesday, January 26 at 10pm ET and PT on CBC News Network’s The Passionate Eye.

We sat beside each other during the premiere screening and, okay, during the first few minutes we were both a tiny bit anxious about whether the audience would engage.  But any apprehension dissolved as we realized the theatre was absolutely silent, except for laughter at appropriate times.  People were fully engaged with Hilary’s amazing journey.

When the film ended, there was a huge spontaneous standing ovation and I could barely get Hilary to the front of the theatre – she was so overwhelmed with emotion.  Not only did people believe her story, they loved her, and wanted to show it.

I’m so sorry Hilary’s not with us to watch her story on The Passionate Eye  January 26, but I’m sure glad she had a chance to experience how people react to it, and to her.  Here’s what she wrote to me when she got home from Vancouver:  “I’m still on a buzz from last week and everyone here has seen something about it on TV or paper.  I haven’t.  If you hear anything will you let me know.  I can’t wait until our next adventure together!!!!!  There will be one won’t there??  Love, Hilary”

-Helen Slinger

When the Devil knocks airs Wednesday, January 26 at 10pm ET and PT on CBC News Network’s The Passionate Eye.

For the trailer and more on the film go to www.whenthedevilknocks.com

I was there when Hilary sat down with her therapist, Cheryl Malmo, to watch some of the videotape as different personalities emerged during therapy. Hilary found it really difficult, and somewhat freaky, that the alters all looked like the middle-aged woman she physically was. This was NOT how they appeared in her mind’s eye.

For example, Tim – probably her favourite alter – was a rambunctious 12-year-old boy. He was even left-handed. Oh, and Tim didn’t need eyeglasses but Hilary did in “real” life. Tim behaved very differently from Hilary but he still looked like her – and that just didn’t sit right with Hilary.

So while I was cogitating about how to visualize her story, I asked Hilary how she’d feel about helping me cast actors to play some of her key alters for some very abstract reenactments. This was early on, when she was still feeling a little afraid of the filmmaking process – understandably! But when I asked for help with the casting, she absolutely lit up.

By the time we got to the casting sessions, some months later, Hilary was anxious about whether she knew how. With Cheryl by her side, though, it was better than a breeze – it was a wonderful breath of fresh air for all of us. Hilary had such a click when the right person walked in the room. We rapidly realized that it was all about the energy. We were auditioning for another character when “Tim” walked in the room and Hilary knew instantly. In fact, she was somewhat reluctant to let him go!

It was the same when we were filming the reenactment scenes with the alters. Hilary liked to be around for those shoots because she realized that, now that she was whole, she missed having the alters exist separate from her.

If that thought makes your mind fry, it was even a little much to take in for Hilary. When we were filming the kite-flying scene with Tim, Hilary said to me, “I wanted people to see him as he was all along, and now they can. I feel like saying ‘I told you so, it wasn’t imagination, it was real and this proves it.’ But of course, that’s ridiculous.”

That’s how real the alters were to Hilary. Even as a whole, integrated person, she remembered them as if they were a real family of children that she had known and nurtured.

– Helen Slinger

When we first met four or so years ago, she was very fragile.  I remember sitting in her little living room, with Hilary and her beloved partner Debbie, and having Hilary ask me if I thought she was crazy.  I told her that I didn’t think she was crazy but she sure was a lot braver than me – to consider letting the world see videotape of her psychotherapy.

I actually like to occasionally remind myself of how scared and timid Hilary was because it reminds me of how very brave she was; and of how far she came in the few sweet years that I had the privilege of knowing her.  In a small way, our journey together, making the documentary, mirrored Hilary’s much greater journey to become a whole person.  I saw her – on the therapy tapes AND in our real life interactions – grow from a terrified child in a woman’s body into the whole, powerful, hilarious, triumphant person that was Hilary Stanton in the last woefully short years of her life.

By the time we showed the rough cut of the documentary to Hilary, prior to its film festival premiere, I was the one who was scared.  Not afraid that she wouldn’t “like” the film but worried that it would hurt her to re-experience some of the painful parts of her life.  She did wince a couple of times but at the end she stood up, gave me a big hug and said, “Thank you.  I’m so proud to be the face of DID.”

Through her courage, Hilary has given the world a gift of understanding about this fascinating but controversial disorder.  And I’m powerfully glad that, before she left us, Hilary saw that her work was done.  Thinking of her often brings to mind one of my favourite quotes, from Amelia Earhart:  “Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.”

Here’s to you, Hilary.

– Helen Slinger

Because I disagree with you doesn’t make me a cat hater.  In fact, we made the film because we want more cats to live and live better lives.  After doing much research I concluded, based upon all the evidence, that cats lived better, longer lives spayed and neutered and indoors.  Yes, cats love to hunt.  And so do dogs. But we domesticated both animals and have responsibility for their welfare and the damage they do to other species. As a society, we no longer tolerate packs of wild roaming dogs (except in remote areas and even then we do our best to control them) and we can’t afford to allow cats to roam either.   Partly to protect birds, but also, for the cats!

My position on feral cat colonies and trap/neuter/return:  to be tolerated and an interim solution at best. Mostly because I too oppose mass euthanasia. Sure as hell wouldn’t sleep nights if I was the one who had to pull the plug on dozens of cats every day.  But it’s time for some serious science on TNR.  We need studies done by biologists and population ecologists to see whether TNR truly reduces the size of colonies over time.  Not vets. Vets aren’t trained to do this work. And when feral cat colonies are situated near wildlife sanctuaries and endangered bird populations, the cats must be moved.   And as for the enthusiastic politicking by trap/neuter/return advocates urging municipalities coast to coast to put cash into supporting their work – let’s make that decision based on science, not sentimentality.   The very best thing municipalities can do right now for cats, is insist upon licensing them. And work with cat groups to ensure ferals aren’t vulnerable to euthanasia as a result.

I’m a dog person. I’m also a cat person. And a bird person. But mostly I’m a person that thinks about the interconnectedness of all things on the planet. We’re all in mighty big trouble.  Many solutions to serious environmental problems involve tens of billions of dollars and decades of intergovernmental panel discussions.  Yet some solutions are within our reach. If you could drop 10 bucks on a license, spay and neuter your cat, keep it indoors and ultimately save the lives of millions of cats, why can’t we just do it?      -  Maureen

Director Helen Slinger, and the crew of Bountiful Films, came to care deeply for Hilary during the production of When the Devil Knocks. We are honoured to have known her and feel privileged to have been entrusted with the telling of her remarkable story.

As she went through so much to get healthy and whole, it seems desperately unfair that Hilary didn’t have more time. But there’s comfort in knowing that she was finally truly happy and at peace and, for us at Bountiful, there’s comfort, too, in remembering how much pleasure Hilary found in the making of the documentary. As the credits rolled at the premiere screening in Vancouver, she glowed in the warmth of an absolutely thunderous standing ovation.

We mourn the passing of this powerful, irrepressible, wonderful woman. Hilary was very brave to lay open her life in the way that she did and she was proud of the resulting film, now her legacy.