Tilray
Multiple Releases 2015-2020
Tilray is one of the world leading licensed producers of medical grade cannabis. We first started working with them in 2014 during the construction and build out phase of their facility in Nanaimo, BC. Once things were operational we were asked to create something on their first official patient, Maria, a former RCMP Officer.
From there it we began working closely with the team at Tilray, to highlight the unique journeys of some of Tilray’s patients. These were some of the most inspiring stories that we’ve been lucky enough to tell. It was incredibly moving to hear, first hand, how medicinal cannabis was not just relieving the odd symptom here and there, it was completely changing people’s lives. We moved forward into this campaign knowing that these stories would be full of emotion and our job was to just not get in it’s way and let it come across as naturally as possible.
Braydon (film at the top of the page)
Braydon was diagnosed with epilepsy shortly after birth. He would have multiple seizures daily. His mom, Tasha, worked closely with the doctors to try to remedy the situation but nothing they were trying was finding any real results. She’d started to hear from other parents of epileptic children that they were finding great relief with medical cannabis. Extracts were starting to hit the Canadian market which seemed like a much more manageable way to administer and accurately dose the cannabis. Like many people, she had to fight against stigmas and go through several doctors to finally get a prescription. But it was worth it… things immediately started to improve.
Maria
We initially met Maria as Tilray’s first official patient. After a work-place injury in her job as an RCMP officer she was dealing with lack of mobility, severe pain, Raynaud’s disease, depression… the list was long. The biggest impact in her life was being felt from the side effects of taking the opioid medications she was taking to combat the pain. She’d been hearing that others were finding some relief by using cannabis to decrease or eliminate the opioid consumption. This was her first ever experience trying medical cannabis.
Stephanie
At 4 years old Stephanie was diagnose with Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome, a form of epilepsy that manifests in several types of seizures. Her mother, Jennifer, started documenting the seizures and figures that Stephanie has suffered over 10,000 episodes in her life. After more than two decades of trying every medical option in the book to deal with her near-constant seizures, Stephanie’s parents were finally presented with a final option, open brain surgery. One last push of research led them to medical cannabis. Jennifer took to baking brownies with a small dose of extracts and they immediately started seeing huge results. She went from dozens of seizures per day, to about a dozen a month. To see how much one simple medicine can completely change people’s lives, entire families lives, is awe inspiring.
Natalie
From a young age Natalie had been dealing with a myriad of symptoms: depression, anxiety, sleeping disorders, all of which required their own medications and in many cases other medications to deal with the side effects of the original medications. Doctors struggled to be able to figure out why she was suffering all of the symptoms. Finally, in 2014 she was diagnosed with PTSD from a trauma she faced as a child. Not long after receiving the diagnosis she saw a news report on how many people suffering from PTSD have been having great success with medical cannabis. Her own research lead to an article that Tilray had published on PTSD and medical cannabis. It took a bit of experimenting to find the strain that worked for her, but not long after she was finding herself again… feeling more level in mind and body, and able to leave most of her medications behind.
“Filter has been instrumental in telling the Tilray story through staff, facility and patient videos. They took the time to understand our company and goals, and have a remarkable knack of finding the heart in every story we want to tell.”
Philippe Lucas, Tilray