Getting Grace, a Film by Daniel Roebuck

This is what you need to know about this Park Memorial event.

In August of 2018, we were given a unique opportunity: Park Memorial welcomed actors Daniel Roebuck and Madelyn Dundon and their beautiful film Getting Grace to Edmonton for its Canadian debut. The community joined us in engaging with Daniel and Madelyn as we hosted several events, including three movie showtimes through the span of a week. The initial event was a fundraising Filmmaker’s Dinner at The Workshop Eatery. Our guests were entertained as Daniel and Madelyn bantered with each other, sharing stories and anecdotes about their experiences in making the film. Daniel not only starred in the film, but also co-wrote, directed, and co-produced the film, along with the film’s producer, his wife Tammy Roebuck. Getting Grace is the story of a young woman named Grace, aged 16 years old who lives life to the fullest, and brings laughter with her everywhere she goes with her very wacky sense of humour. Early in the film, Grace receives a cancer diagnosis with no hope of survival. 

Wanting to better understand what will happen to her and wanting to care for some of her end-of-life decisions to ease the burden on her mother, Grace happens into a funeral home and meets the awkward and reserved funeral director, Bill Jankowski. Her questions and candor turn his world upside down, and so begins an unexpected friendship. The film offers a beautiful mixture of laugh-out-loud humour, combined with poignant conversation surrounding living fully, death, and dying. Thanks to the generous sponsorship support of our presenting sponsors Canadian Western Bank, Alberta Wilbert Sales, and The Imperial Group, our other event partners, and our event guests, we were also able to raise funds for the three grief and mental health expert agencies that served on our panel discussions. Getting Grace is now available for purchase via digital download on iTunes and on DVD and Blu-Ray via Amazon Canada. 

Schedules and Activities

Following each of the showtimes, we hosted a panel discussion where the audience could ask questions related to the movie, grief or mental health of Daniel, Madelyn, our Park Memorial Vice President, Kirstie Smolyk, and experts from Momentum Walk-in Counselling, Pilgrims Hospice, and Canadian Mental Health – Edmonton Region. 

"Daniel Roebuck was clearly engaged, with a good understanding of the grief that death and dying can evoke. He was a great advocate for the movie's bigger purpose of making death less frightening and helping to make difficult conversations easier."

Monica Robson

"One of our volunteers, who originally came to Pilgrims for grief counseling following the death of her husband, described the movie as: Touching, educational, enlightening and incredibly humorous, all at the same time. Superb acting, engaging story, poignant, and heart-warming."

Pilgrims Hospice

"Congratulations on hosting such a successful Canadian premiere for the movie Getting Grace. As Park Memorial hoped, bringing the movie to Edmonton did so much to help individuals and families start difficult conversations around death, dying and grief, as well as to raise awareness for local resources available in the field of grief and bereavement."

Amy Hill