THE
Emotional Man
Listening to Suicide
THE EMOTIONAL MAN: LISTENING TO SUICIDE
The Emotional Man is a short film built on the stories of people who survived the night they did not think they would survive. Alongside them are doctors, authors, and mental health professionals who explain what is actually happening in the mind when the dark gets loud, and what helps when it does. The film does not stop at the story. It invites the viewer into practice. Sit with the breath. Interrupt the thought before it finishes the sentence. Begin building a future the pain said was not coming.
THE MISSION
I am Jesse James Ferrell. Untamed Today exists for the men and women taught to carry it quietly, and for anyone in the LGBTQ+ community who has ever wondered whether the world would be lighter without them.
I lived through my own suicidal ideation. What changed things was not answers. It was a friend who stayed present instead of trying to fix me, and a quiet voice in me that said stay.
That is the whole mission. Make that kind of listening ordinary. Not experts with solutions. People who ask how you really are and stay for the answer. Silence is not strength. Letting someone walk beside you is.
THE FILM
The Emotional Man is a short film built on the stories of people who survived the night they did not think they would survive. Alongside them are doctors, authors, and mental health professionals who explain what is actually happening in the mind when the dark gets loud, and what helps when it does.
The film does not stop at the story. It invites the viewer into practice. Sit with the breath. Interrupt the thought before it finishes the sentence. Begin building a future the pain said was not coming.
I produced and created it after living through my own suicidal ideation, because the film I needed then did not exist.
THE SPEAKING
I speak to audiences about listening, emotional health, and what survival actually asks of the people around us. That work has taken me to the TEDx stage, the DEBx stage, and the Global Possibility stage.
The talks are not a recap of the film. Each one takes a different door into the same room. What we lose to silence, what changes when one person refuses to leave, and what becomes possible on the other side of staying.
THE MUSIC
Edge of My Own Light is the music campaign behind it all, with a release date of September 2026. Thirty-six songs, each written from a specific ache and answered with a hand extended. Every song exists in two versions, one built to move a room and one built to sit with you in a quiet one, and each is paired with a written piece from The Untamed Codex.
The campaign runs for Suicide Awareness Month, and the work is meant to outlast the month. A song can reach a person who will never read an article and will never call anyone. That is the point.
THE INVITATION
Watch the film. Listen to the record. Then go ask someone how they really are, and stay for the answer.
If you or someone you love is struggling in the US or Canada, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Outside North America, reach your local crisis service.
