Documentary to hit big screen in the South West

The film, directed by award-winning filmmaker Shireen Narayanan, is based on the true story of 24-year-old Perth woman Claire Murray, who made headlines in 2009 during her search for a life-saving liver transplant.

The search soon became a trial by the mainstream media, which portrayed the mother-of-two as a drug addict who destroyed her first transplant during a heroin relapse.

It was later revealed that Ms Murray had been the victim of a violent attack at the age of 12 and was also suffering from an undiagnosed blood clotting condition, which contributed to her failed transplants.

Wild Butterfly sheds light on the correlation between childhood trauma, mental health issues and drug use, as well as the impact of the sensationalist media coverage leading up to Ms Murray's passing in 2010.

With more than three decades worth of experience as a psychotherapist, Ms Narayanan said she was driven by the need to provide greater awareness of the link between trauma and drug dependence.

"Claire Murray was unfairly and wrongly portrayed as an ungrateful addict who recklessly squandered her second chance at life by using drugs," she said.

"While she was clinging to life, caught in a media spotlight, it was simply too traumatic for Claire and her family to reveal the shocking, violent attack 12 years earlier that sparked her drug problems and mental health battles. Nor should it have been incumbent on them to do so.

"We hope Claire's legacy, through this film, is a more compassionate, supportive society and an end to the kind of ill-informed, damaging discrimination the Murray family endured."

The film forms part of a Social Impact Campaign and has prompted the development of learning modules for the Health, Education, Justice and Media sectors.

The screening will be held at Grand Cinemas in Bunbury from 7pm on March 12.

To secure tickets, visit www.fan-force.com/screenings/wild-butterfly-grand-cinemas-bunbury/