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Buddy Check for Jesse: Helping Coaches Support Youth Mental Health

After losing his incredible son, Jesse Short-Gershman, at age 22 to suicide, Dr. Stu Gershman made a decision: to talk openly about mental health in an unlikely place — the locker room.

Through Buddy Check for Jesse, Stu encourages coaches to raise mental health awareness through the power of sport. Today, Jesse's impact stretches across the country, changing the lives of countless young athletes from Victoria to Manitoba and sparking a national dialogue on Hockey Day in Canada.

This production was supported by Telus StoryHive, CreativeBC, and the NSI. It is not available online or to stream until after Festival consideration.

  • Michael Anthony
    Director
  • Stu Gershman
    Key Cast
    Founder, Buddy Check
  • Robyn Vandersteen
    Key Cast
    Lead Volunteer, Manitoba
  • Carson Strom
    Key Cast
    Youth Mental Health Ambassador
  • Bruce Pinel
    Key Cast
    RCC, Ph.d. Sport Psychology
  • Ron Maclean
    Key Cast
    Hockey Night in Canada Anchor
  • Ken Reid
    Key Cast
    Sportsnet Co-Anchor
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Genres:
    Documentary, Drama
  • Runtime:
    29 minutes 24 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 1, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    20,000 CAD
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    Canada
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital, Black Magic, RED, 6K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Michael Anthony

Michael is a writer, director, and cinematographer based in Victoria, BC. He creates near-future commercials for tech pioneers and lush, visually stunning music videos for artists like bbno$ and Diplo. In documentary he explores the social impact of the environment and grief through the lens of hope.

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Director Statement

In 2021, I lost my older brother, Darcy. His passing was both sudden and prolonged. He had a stroke at the age of 36 that left him in a coma on the ICU at Victoria General Hospital for months. Each day, I would go in and read out loud to him, in the hopes that he could hear my voice and wake up.

It's funny to admit, but I actually picked books I thought my brother would hate. Knowing him the way I really knew him, I thought the best chance I would have to wake him up is by annoying him, the way only a younger brother can. Spite was what got him out of bed every other morning, why should the hospital bed be any different?

Well, Darcy never did wake up. So it goes. One by one major organs failed until he passed peacefully in palliative care back home in Nanaimo on February 21st, 2021.

In the time since then, I have struggled with grief and loss. But I've found something that helps. When I miss him, which is often, I still read out loud, just like in the hospital. I know he isn't around any more to hear it, but in this small way I get to spend time with him, everyday, as if he is here. Sometimes, when lost in the latest best-seller, I spend more time with him than the other, living people in my life. It's how I have found to honor him. To keep him in my thoughts.

Just shortly after Darcy passed, I met Stu Gershman on a windy rooftop above Swann's pub in downtown Victoria. I was chasing the light setting on this makeshift interview space as I ran through the ten or so winners of that year's Victoria Community Leadership Awards. Stu and I got to talking, and before we knew it, our light was gone.

I think Stu and I recognized something in each other in that moment. We both were trying, as best we could, to honor the people in our lives we had lost. Where I had lost a brother, Stu had lost his son.

Brilliant, warm, thoughtful. Jesse Short-Gershman died by suicide at the age of 22. And where Stu could have collapsed into his grief, retreating inward, like I had seen many of the people in my life do in the aftermath of losing their child, he instead made a decision. A decision to be present for his surviving children. To talk about what happened.

That also meant continuing to coach their hockey games. And one day, Stu got the idea to help bring a message of mental health awareness to that locker room --- to let those kids know that one of their teammates, one of their buddies, they're going through something huge right now. That they don't understand, that no one really can understand. And that they could use some support and care. Even if they seem fine, even if they look okay physically, it can make a world of difference just to reach out and check in on them.

Flash foward, and this simple idea of coaching kindness and compassion to Stu's sons' hockey teams has turned into a movement and kickstarted a national dialogue about growing mental wellness in youth sports. I've been lucky to follow Stu on this journey, and in the process, learn more about how we can leave a legacy worthy of the ones we love.

My first documentary film, Buddy Check for Jesse, is dedicated in loving memory to Jesse Short-Gershman for everything he's taught me, and continues to teach me, to this day. Thank you, Stu, and thank you Jesse.