Reviews & feedback about Losing Layla - the documentary

'Losing Layla is extraordinary, brave and confronting.'
The Australian.

'This exceptional documentary is about as raw and honest and hard to watch as television gets. Even the most stone hearted viewer will need to reach for tissues.'
Sun Herald

'Nothing could prepare me for the confronting ABC TV film, Losing Layla, a video diary which takes viewers on an intensely personal emotional journey into every parents worst nightmare....an extraordinary film ....groundbreaking television..this is grief writ large. This is reality television in all its goriness. This is real people suffering real grief.....Watch this film if you can, for its portrayal of the joy of life and the tragedy of death may become something you treasure too.'
The Australian

'Her extraordinary film Losing Layla..is a harrowing account of a couple’s journey into emotional hell following the death of their newborn daughter. Yet it is also the story of how in this dark place they found something intensely special- the knowledge that life and death are part of our existence and that love and compassion is out there for those who need it.'
Sunday Mail

'Losing Layla is a profoundly affecting film and Vanessa Gorman has nurtured something very special.'
Who Magazine

'What started as a film about a mother and father’s differing responses to the impending birth of their child became, instead, one of the most heartbreaking depictions of a mothers grief for her dead baby ever shown on television, both here and overseas. Through Losing Layla we saw not just the death of Layla but perhaps, the death of every child, and not just the grief of Vanessa Gorman, but the universal grieving of all mothers for a lost child.'
The Australian Women’s Weekly

'Last month, mother’s groups and offices all around Australia were abuzz with discussions of Vanessa Gorman’s remarkable documentary Losing Layla. When I saw the ads for the documentary, I’ll admit I was skeptical....But after seeing the results, I can only be grateful that Gorman was prepared to share her loss. Gorman is the most devoted and committed of mothers and her grief was overwhelming to watch.'
The Age

'It began as a simple documentary about what having a child can do to a relationship....The film finally became a shocking, confronting piece of television.'
Sun Herald

'It raises ethical issues as clearly as it parades a mothers grief at the infant death of her daughter and the father’s confusion over his responses and responsibility. Tricky but compelling viewing.'
Daily Telegraph

'..it’s a gripping film- ...simply because the subject matter is so confronting. Losing Layla will make some people angry and some people sad , but it may also help others survive a difficult time of grieving.' Sydney Morning Herald

' The documentary that started out looking at how a baby could change a couple’s relationship , ended in a raw, heartwrenching and incredibly intimate depiction of grief. Losing Layla is a film that will not be easily forgotten.'
The Northern Star.

Grief is an uncomfortable subject. How does one express it in a culture that flinches from unhappiness and pain? What is the proper place for grief in a society that has lost touch with many of its ritual ways of dealing with the loss of a loved on? Should grief be a private experience , or publicly expressed? Losing Layla is a courageous documentary that confronts and raises these issues in an excruciating manner. It is a deeply disturbing film because it relentlessly excavates grief . One cannot help being moved or even traumatised by Losing Layla '
Senses of Cinema