Across the Cape this past summer and fall, viewers in local movie theaters showed up in big numbers to see Rise Above, a film documenting the journey of the beloved local singer Sarah Swain as she processed the death of her mother from ovarian cancer. Chronicling Swain’s struggle with the weighty darkness of her grief, documentary maker Kim Rodriques and cinematographer Geoffrey Bassett help tell the story of how Swain took the energy of her raw emotion and channeled it into a plan to help Cape Codders living with cancer. From that deep well, hanging onto her mother’s love as a life raft, Swain tried to find meaning in what had happened and a way to honor her mother’s memory. Running through every aspect of the story was Swain’s search for a way to do for others what she knew, from experience, would help them. She first founded the Cape Cod Women’s Music Festival in 2012. From there, she had another idea, to pave a way for the community to provide services that might not otherwise be offered. The film was a fundraising effort to support the resulting organization Swain created.

Viewers from the three local showings left theaters with a clear understanding of how the Cape Wellness Collaborative was born, and how it has evolved into a solid, reassuring presence in the shaky, ever-changing landscape of the critical care people need when they’re living with cancer.

“The movie gave us a great opportunity to talk to the community about how we started nine years ago,” said Abigail Field, Cape Wellness Collaborative’s new CEO. “But now that we’re firmly established, and more and more people know about us, there’s a ton of opportunity to talk about...