Consider the Conversation is a series of films created by Burning Hay Wagon Productions, a limited liability company founded in 2009 by two long-time Wisconsin friends - Terry Kaldhusdal, a 4th grade teacher and filmmaker, and Michael Bernhagen, a healthcare business development professional turned hospice advocate. Both lost loved ones to severe chronic disease during the first part of the 21st century - Mike's mother, Rita, to congestive heart failure and vascular dementia in 2003 and Terry's brother, Peter, to pancreatic cancer in 2009 - and struggled, like most Americans do, to make sense of what was happening. These personal experiences, combined with Mike's many years of work in the hospice field, led the pair to produce documentaries with one simple goal in mind - inspire culture change that results in end-of-life care that is more person-centered and less system-centered.
Bernhagen and Kaldhusdal's work has deep philanthropic roots. Their first film, Consider the Conversation: A Documentary on a Taboo Subject, was entirely funded by private donations including the donation of more than 3,500 hours of labor from the producers during production. It is an intimate story about the American struggle with communication and preparation for life's end and includes the perspectives of patients, family members, doctors, nurses, social workers, clergy and national experts from around the country. The film premiered in front of a sold out theatrical audience of 755 on 2/5/11, was released on DVD via Amazon.com on 3/1/11, and its broadcast rights donated to PBS stations via the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) on 6/18/11. To date, it has aired 401 times on 163 PBS stations in 30 states and won eleven major awards including journalistic excellence, viewer impact, and use of film for social change. More recently, it inspired the Wisconsin Medical Society to launch a statewide, collaborative advance care planning initiative called Honoring Choices Wisconsin. And, on Sunday, September 30, 2012, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published an article entitled Wisconsin Men's End-of-Life Documentary Makes Waves that chronicled Mike and Terry's role in producing systemic change within the expert culture of medicine.
Their second film, Consider the Conversation: A Documentary About Unintended Consequences, is currently in production and scheduled for release in early 2014. The sequel will focus on a fundamental building block of positive culture change in American end-of-life care - what happens in the context of the patient/doctor relationship.
Bernhagen and Kaldhusdal's filmmaking is primarily done at night and on the weekends when they're not busy with their day jobs. Given the grassroots nature of this work, Consider the Conversation is heavily dependent on the generosity of others. Please support their work and donate today to the Rainbow Hospice Foundation, fiscal sponsor of the film series.
The Rainbow Hospice Foundation exists to support the mission of Rainbow Hospice Care, one of only 7 independent and non-profit hospice programs operating in the state of Wisconsin. Located in the small southern Wisconsin city of Jefferson (pop. 7,973), Rainbow has been a fixture in that rural part of the state since 1990.
About the Producers
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Terry KaldhusdalConsider the Conversation: A Documentary About Unintended Consequences is Terry Kaldhusdal’s sixth documentary film. His previous work includes Thinking Like a Historian, for the Wisconsin State Historical Society, and America’s Kings and Queens, The Gilded Age in Middle America, winner of the Wisconsin Historical Society's 2010 Public Programs Award. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has written that Kaldhusdal’s work is “clear and concise” and added that he has a “passion for learning and a talent for communicating.” Columnist Laurel Walker has called his work “A-plus” and stated that he has “a knack for documenting history.” |
Michael BernhagenMichael Bernhagen, Director of Community Engagement with Rainbow Hospice Care of Jefferson, Wisconsin, is well-acquainted with the American medical system. From 1994 to 2003, he worked in business development with one of the Midwest’s largest integrated healthcare delivery systems and multi-specialty group practices. During this decade, his time and energy were spent focusing on things like "physician incentive compensation plans", “revenue growth”, “patient acquisition”, and “referral relationship development”. Those priorities changed in late 2003, however, when his mother, Rita, passed away from congestive heart failure and vascular dementia. |
