Documentary at DIFF Highlights How Strangers Lives can Connect

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Timelines showcases the stories of three teenagers who lived separate existences but shared a commonality with their lives being celebrated all over the world.

Timelines, directed by Tarryn Crossman, premiered at the 37th Durban International Film Festival.

Amber Cornwell, a 16-year-old from North Carolina in the United States, was a happy young girl or so her parents thought. Amber hanged herself in her bedroom closet after a posting on her Facebook page which read: ‘if I die tonight, would anyone cry?’

She was severely bullied at school but it is unknown exactly why she killed herself.

Her death soon became known across the world and “anti-bullying” campaigns were started in her memory.

Jenna Lowe (17) of Cape Town was diagnosed with a rare disease, Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PH), which threatened and eventually cut short her life. Jenna and her family managed to control the disease for almost three years.

At 19, she initiated the GetMeTo21 campaign in which she invited the nation to her 21st birthday, encouraging people to sign up to become organ donors to help her to be at her party. Early in 2015, Jenna had a lung transplant but things went wrong and she died after months in the Intensive Care Unit. The worldwide exposure she received led to her being remembered for her campaign encouraging people to become organ donors.

Kaileigh Fryer (19), died in a car accident in Terrey Hills Sydney, Australia. Her parents found her diary with a to-do list which was handed out to everyone at her funeral.  The list soon went viral and people across the world were ticking items off the list in memory of her.

The film illustrated how strangers share commonalities as was the case with these three teenagers and their families whose pain was made more bearable by the celebration of the lives of those who died.

Karabo Moeti