Help Bring Sunshine to Life
Hi my name is Molly Schenkenberger, I’m an actress, director, and producer.
I grew up as a frequent pediatric hospital patient, and for much of my childhood, hospitals were simply part of my version of normal. It wasn’t until I got older that I began looking back and understanding the emotional complexity of those experiences.
That perspective inspired me to write Sunshine.
Sunshine is not a story about diagnoses or medical procedures. It’s about what it feels like to be a child growing up in that environment, the happy, difficult, and complicated moments that can co-exist as a child growing up in the hospital setting.
Sunshine follows Ella, an 8-year-old recovering from surgery, who meets Lindsay, another young patient. Through coloring, crafts, and an unexpected friendship, the girls find moments of ordinary childhood inside a place that is anything but ordinary.
At an age when children are beginning to understand their bodies and develop a sense of autonomy, illness can leave them feeling trapped and powerless. But they’re still kids who want to have fun, make friends, fit in, and experience what feels like a “normal” childhood.
Stories about childhood illness often center the parent's perspective. I wanted to stay inside the child's world.
While no short film can capture every person's experience, Sunshine explores the complexity of childhood illness through friendship, loss, body autonomy, and the simple desire to just be a kid.
This story is deeply personal to me. Through this film, I hope to raise awareness about the impact hospitalization can have on children and create space for meaningful conversations among adults who have experienced hospitalization as children themselves or have loved ones who have.
We’re raising funds to bring Sunshine to life and share a perspective that deserves to be seen: childhood illness through a child’s eyes.