Tell Me The Day Backwards

WINTER FILM AWARDS 2014 NOMINEE - BEST DOCUMENTARY

• 2013

• United States

• 53 mins

• Documentary Film Competition

Jill and Dan Ward had their first baby in March of 2010. They named her Holly. She was happy and healthy and just as perfect as a new baby could be. For the first six months of Holly’s life, nothing at all appeared to be wrong. Around the age of seven months, Jill and Dan started to notice that she wasn’t reaching the milestones that babies tend to reach around that age. As time went on, Holly began to lose certain skills such as holding her head up, grabbing things, and rolling over. It took about eight months, but Holly was eventually diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease, a rare, genetic disorder most commonly found in the Ashkenazi Jewish population. Neither Jill nor Dan were aware there was even a chance that they were carriers for the disease. “I was inspired to give Holly a voice that would carry on for much longer than her life here,” Ferro says. “Even though she passed away in March, people will still know what an extraordinary person she was through the sharing of this film.”