Never Broken, Nothing Lacking

Aim

Help us follow psychiatrist Dr Bill Pettit across UK and Europe to create a documentary offering a hopeful new way of seeing mental health.

NEVER BROKEN, NOTHING LACKING

READ THE FULL PRESENTATION

A documentary project by Carina Loweth

We are living through a time when growing numbers of people believe they are damaged, traumatised and/or fundamentally lacking.  From this perspective we innocently create and live in fear.

What if suffering is real—but brokenness is not?

This film acknowledges human suffering. It brings a new level of understanding to its cause, diagnoses, the nature of effective therapy and the role of medication and other organic therapies.

It begins with a different question:

What if the pain/suffering is real, but the person experiencing it is not/has never been broken?

NEVER BROKEN, NOTHING LACKING  is an international feature documentary in development.  In Phase One we will follow psychiatrist Dr Bill Pettit as he travels across the UK and Europe sharing an understanding that transformed his own experience of depression and has shaped more than four decades of his clinical life.

Through Dr Bill Pettit’s stories, encounters and conversations, the film will invite us to look again—at mental health, at suffering, and at what it means to be human.

Not to look away from pain, but to look beyond the assumption that suffering tells us the whole truth about a person.

Why Dr Bill Pettit?

Dr Bill Pettit has spent 43 years witnessing what can happen when people are seen from a different understanding.

As a psychiatrist, educator, clinician and lifelong student, Dr Bill Pettit has worked across many contexts—from hospitals and therapeutic settings to prisons, communities, families and professional training rooms.

He has encountered people experiencing profound distress, people who had been defined by diagnoses, histories or behaviours, and people whom others had come to label as damaged or beyond hope. Yet Dr Bill Pettit continued to see something deeper.

Again and again, he witnessed moments in which people recognised that their suffering did not define the entirety of who they were. He saw hope return where hope had appeared impossible. He saw people reconnect with dignity, wisdom and an inner capacity that had never been absent, even when it had become obscured. Dr Bill Pettit carries hundreds of stories from those 43 years.

These stories are not merely examples supporting a theory. They are the living heart of the film to awaken hope and invite us to look in a different direction.

Each asks, in its own way:

What became possible because someone was not seen as broken?

Dr Bill Pettit is also uniquely placed to bridge worlds that are too often treated as separate.

He brings the experience and discipline of neuroscience, medicine and psychiatry together with a grounded recognition of our spiritual, psychological and physiological nature. He does not use spirituality to escape the realities of human suffering. He points towards a larger understanding of the human being—one that includes the connection with our identity as a spiritual being which awakens our innate capacity for insight, wisdom, connection and renewal.

His life gives the film history, credibility and urgency.

But the film is not ultimately about one man.

Dr Bill Pettit is the guide. The deepest subject is what becomes visible to the viewer through insight-based realisation.

Why film?

Many books, talks, courses and professional trainings already exist around the understanding at the heart of Dr Bill Pettit’s work. 

But film can reach us differently.  An idea may engage the intellect. A story can enter the imagination, touch the heart and remain with us long after the facts have been forgotten.

Across cultures and generations, stories have carried our deepest knowledge. They help us recognise ourselves in lives unlike our own. They make the invisible felt. They can carry us beyond our resistance and change what we see is possible.

At its most powerful, film does more than communicate a message.

It changes the place from which we see.

That is what draws us to this medium.  We do not want to create a filmed lecture or simply record Dr Bill Pettit teaching from the front of a room. We want to make a cinematic documentary in which the understanding is carried through human stories, encounters, images, humour, silence and the feeling that comes from fresh insights.

We want to capture the moments around the words:

A person listening differently.

A face softening.

A story that changes the atmosphere in a room.

The silence after something has been recognised.

The unexpected laughter that breaks through seriousness.

The moment someone begins to see themselves—or another person—in a new way.

The camera will not only observe Dr Bill Pettit speaking. It will listen for what his presence and stories make possible.

The story must come before the message—not because the message matters less, but because story allows the viewer to discover its meaning for themselves.

An invitation to look again

Much of the prevailing conversation around mental health begins with a necessary but limited question:  

What is wrong?

Symptoms are identified. Experiences are categorised. Explanations are sought. Treatment is offered. All of this can be valuable.

But when every line of the picture converges on illness, dysfunction or damage, the human being can begin to disappear behind the diagnosis.

This documentary asks what happens when we widen the frame.

What if we look again at the person behind the symptoms?

What if wellbeing is not something that has been destroyed, but something that can become hidden beneath thought-created fear and distress?

What if our deepest nature is incredibly more powerful than we have been led to believe or can even imagine?

What might change if a psychiatrist saw the wholeness/wellbeing of their patient?

If a parent looked again at a suffering child with fresh eyes? 

If someone experiencing distress saw it as a love letter to come home to inner stillness?

Because when the way we see a human being changes, the way we meet them changes.

And when the way we see ourselves changes, an entirely different future becomes possible.

Why hope matters now

So much storytelling around mental health understandably focuses on pain, trauma, crisis and struggle.  Those stories deserve to be told.  But pain is not the only truth.

We also need stories that reveal resilience, recognition, recovery, humour, connection and the extraordinary capacity of human beings to see something new.

The hope in this documentary will not come from pretending that everything is easy or promising that every difficulty will disappear.  It comes from a deeper possibility:

The circumstances may be significantly challenging. The suffering may be real. And yet our most hopeless conclusion about the person may still be mistaken.

Hope is not an added tone we will place over the film.

Hope is at the centre of its inquiry.

Hope is the opening that appears when someone realises that there is more to them, and more available to them, than they had previously realised.

When we begin to recognise that beneath everything a human being has experienced, something essential remains present, intact and capable of a new life, a second chance.

Phase One: following Dr Bill Pettit across UK and Europe

The first phase of the documentary is to follow Dr Bill Pettit during his forthcoming UK and European tour.

He will be visiting a series of communities at retreats and gatherings, meeting people from different backgrounds and sharing from the stories and understanding that have shaped his life. Each community brings different histories, cultures and questions. The same invitation may be heard differently in Norway, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, England or Spain. 

This tour allows the film to witness not a repeated presentation, but a living conversation unfolding across Europe.  It gives us a rare opportunity to capture Dr Bill Pettit not only as a teacher, but as a human being in relationship with others: travelling, listening, remembering, responding and meeting people in real time.  We will film selected parts of the gatherings, but this will not be a conventional recording of his training.

Our focus will be the larger human story:

 - Dr Bill Pettit’s personal and professional journey;

- the experiences that changed how he understood mental health;

- stories from his 43 years of practice;

- his relationship with Sydney Banks and the Three Principles understanding;

- his ability to bridge the clinical and the spiritual;

- the people he meets across the tour;

- the way he speaks to their struggles with love and lightheartedness;

- the significance of finding stillness within;

- and the moments of recognition and connection that cannot be scripted in advance.

We cannot yet know exactly what will be filmed as we listen, notice and remain open to what unfolds. But we know what we are looking for.

We are looking for the moments when an old picture loosens.

When another possibility comes into view.

When someone looks again—and sees what has been there all along.

This first phase will allow us to begin assembling the emotional and visual language of the documentary and create a compelling proof-of-concept film.

That material will then help us approach broadcasters, documentary partners, foundations, patrons and further funders for the next stage of production.

Phase Two - the Larger Vision

Our ambition is to create an international documentary with the potential to reach audiences far beyond the existing Three Principles community.

In Phase Two our aim is to record additional conversations following on from Phase One.  These may include progress check-ins and also interviews with other key proponents of this understanding, such as Dr Dicken Bettinger and best-selling authors Michael Neill and Jamie Smart.

Our intention is for this documentary to speak to people experiencing distress, families searching for hope, mental-health professionals, doctors, therapists, educators, carers and anyone who has ever feared that they—or someone they love—may be permanently damaged. 

Ultimately, this documentary will be relevant not only to people in crisis, but to anyone who recognises what it is to become lost in thought, fear, conflict or self-judgement.  It will touch any human being wanting to be at peace and to give and receive love freely.

What your support will make possible

Funds raised through this campaign will help cover the real costs of filming Phase One, including:

- travel and accommodation across the UK and European tour;

- camera, sound and production equipment;

- professional filming and sound recording;

- production insurance and essential permissions;

- secure storage and management of the footage;

- filming interviews and observational material around the events;

- initial editing and post-production;

- and the creation of a proof-of-concept or pitch film for future partners and funders.

Supporting this campaign is not simply helping us record a tour.

It is helping us preserve the stories and lived experience of a psychiatrist who has spent more than four decades quietly witnessing another possibility for mental health.

It is helping us discover how that possibility can be translated into a cinematic experience capable of reaching far beyond the rooms in which Dr Bill Pettit currently speaks.

Our Targets

We have chosen to launch our campaign with a minimum funding goal of £20,000.

This will enable us to document four key stops on Dr Bill Pettit's tour across England and Spain. It is the minimum we need to begin telling this story—but our vision extends much further.

That is why we have created four additional funding milestones, ranging from £24,000 to £50,000+. Each milestone allows us to add two more destinations, expanding the scope and richness of the documentary. Reaching £35,000 will enable us to follow the entire UK and European tour, ensuring that no essential chapter of this unique journey is left untold.

Finally, we have set an ambitious stretch goal of £50,000+. This will allow us not only to complete filming, but also to transform what we capture into a compelling proof of concept capable of attracting production partners for Phase Two. Additional funding at this level will support:

- Professional trailer for producers, broadcasters and film festivals.

- Additional editing and post-production to shape a powerful cinematic narrative.

- Colour grading and professional sound mixing.

- Original music and licensing where required.

- Archive research and licensing.

- Motion graphics and animation to illustrate key ideas.

- Professional translations and subtitles for an international audience.

- Legal, accounting and production administration.

- Festival and industry pitch materials, including a polished presentation package.

- Contingency, allowing us to respond to unexpected opportunities and production needs.

Every additional pound raised doesn't simply extend our journey—it increases the quality, ambition and international potential of the film. Our goal is not merely to document Dr Bill Pettit's UK and European tour, but to create the strongest possible foundation for Phase Two: a feature documentary with the reach, production values and partners needed to bring this understanding to the widest audience possible.

Please support us in bringing NEVER BROKEN, NOTHING LACKING into being.

Help us follow the stories.
Help us capture the moments.
Help us share a different possibility for mental health.

Team Biographies

The Director : Carina Loweth 

Carina Loweth is a coach and emerging documentary filmmaker with a longstanding interest in the source of human wellbeing, transformation and creative expression. She began her professional life as an intellectual property litigator, developing the skills to research complex subjects, evaluate evidence and shape clear, compelling narratives.  Her subsequent work in travel and hospitality curation deepened her understanding of atmosphere and experience—how thoughtful details, beauty and genuine care can allow people to feel welcomed and touched.  As a transformational coach immersed in the Three Principles understanding, Carina has developed a capacity for deep listening and a particular sensitivity to the moments when insight and lasting change emerge from within.

Carina is drawn to documentary film making because it does not simply tell us something; it allows us to encounter it.  It carries the power to speak directly to something deeper within us—to awaken recognition, unsettle long-held assumptions and bring a truth to life before we can fully put it into words. This is why she is moved to create NEVER BROKEN, NOTHING LACKING.

Key Artistic and Technical Support : Liv Brunet 

Carina has enrolled her partner, Liv Brunet, as artistic advisor and principal technical support for the project.  As well as being a Three Principles coach in France, he is a seasoned documentary filmmaker and image technician.  He trained in film laboratories, post-production and visual effects before becoming a full-time director in 2001 and has since directed around twenty 52-minute documentaries for French TV companies.  He also has extensive experience in large-scale museum and exhibition video installations, including mapping, multi-screen and split-screen formats. His work has been featured in major projects in France and internationally, including Saint Petersburg, Venice, Monaco and Pompeii, with production budgets ranging from €150,000 to €5 million. He is also the writer and director of Le Mariage de Fanny, an award-winning 70mm short film shown at numerous international festivals.

Thank you for reading.  We welcome and value your support.  

Funding method

All or nothing – this project will only receive pledges if it reaches its target of £20,000 by 28th August 2026 at 11:59pm