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Humble Hope
World News

Christian documentary on Church abuse survivors nominated for awards

by Hannah Tooley

Humble Hope, created by Ian Cooke, discovers how Australian survivors kept or found their faith, after being abused in the Church.

Mr Cooke said he wanted to make a film that did not paint everyone in the Church with the same brush, but that looked at people's stories.

On Sunday evening he will find out if he has won more awards in the UK.

He told Premier why he decided to make the feature: "I looked a whole bunch of TV shows that had been made in Australia and not one of them showed and not one showed people of two people praying or hugging together, or actually finding a way through, so I wanted to explore that."

Humble Hope says it "helps us to understand the guilt, shame and blame experienced by victims.

"It follows the journey with survivors, the abuse they received, their suffering, their healing and their willingness to forgive, which has given them true freedom from the past and hope for their future."

The film was won at award at the Hollywood International Independent Documentary Awards in Los Angeles, as well as an Award of Excellence at the Indiefest Global Film Awards in California and has been nominated for three awards at the Southampton International Film Festival, including Best Feature Documentary.

"I just wanted to journey through the experience of survivors and find out more about what it means to be a survivor, and also how to find a way through and how to find hope in all the pain and suffering that's been going on."

Ian Cooke told Premier around every one in four girls, and one in six boys, have been sexually abused before reaching the age of 16.

He estimates the figure at around five million Australians.

Listen to Premier's Aaron James speak to Ian Cooke here:

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