Like every good 21st century adventure, it started on Instagram.

Paul and I are family, connected through a circuitous route that even I struggle to fully understand. An Australian native, he's spent over ten years of his life in the UK, where I was born and still live. He has built relationships with many of my close relatives over the years, largely thanks to his trademark openness and desire to connect.

But despite these connections, he was a stranger to me in one real respect. I didn't know his story, his full story. The story of a boy taken into care aged 9, never to return home because his parents could not care for him. A boy taken into care, by a system that did not care. That did not protect him from his carers when it needed to. That could not prevent him suffering several counts of child sexual abuse, affecting him for the rest of his life. A boy.

Three months after that first Instagram message, Paul and I met in London and went for a long walk on a sunny afternoon in east London. I was immediately struck by his candour, his generosity of spirit and his wise perspective on life. He had a grateful and optimistic take on life, despite (because of?) his trauma.

"I think the key thing is your loss of innocence. And you can't get that back..."

But there was something else, something holding him together that was largely unspoken.

"I choose not to forgive people who did bad things, even my father. Why should I? I can't do it. Having that sort of anger, I'm happy to carry that"

Naturally Paul had every right to be angry and remain angry. But that this would be what keeps him calm, centred and grateful was an irresistible paradox I wanted to explore more. And our film was born.

Paul returned to London the following January and filmed an interview, which forms the backbone of this documentary. With a great crew - DOP Philipp Morozov, Gaffer Chris Perry and sound recordist Christian Wells - Paul gave a fiercely intimate and powerful interview, revisiting events in detail and offering a fresh emotional response.

Paul first disclosed his experiences of child sexual abuse after the announcement of the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2012, by then Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Coming forward and opening up has been a positive journey for Paul, to be heard and believed after such a long time (Paul kept his experiences hidden for over 40 years).

One of the aims of this film is to offer Paul's own experience as an example, to inspire others to come forward if they feel safe doing so. Yet in doing so, we do not sugar coat it. Writing his submission, being interviewed by commissioners and police officers, all of these contained bruising moments. But what the film shows is that this boy who was not cared for when he should have been, has carved a positive path for himself. It is an inspiring and humbling story.

We are now in the final stages of post-production and looking for financial support to help get us over the line. The nature of entirely independent, grassroots projects like this is that we had to front up the initial costs of production ourselves (location hire, crew fees, archive footage costs), so we are partly hoping to recoup some of these, as well as some of our post-production costs including the final edit, an original musical score and some marketing costs, including festival promotion and online distribution.

We will be submitting the film to the Flickerfest in Sydney, Australia and Sheffield Doc Fest in the UK in the first instance - both are world renowned Oscar and BAFTA-qualifying festivals. We want this film to reach as many people as possible, to share Paul's incredible story and perhaps make a small difference to people who may have some share experiences with him.

Thanks you for reading.

Chris Eyre

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Paul Coore, State Ward Boy

Director - Chris Eyre

Director of Photography - Philipp Morozov

Assistant Camera - Valeria Meng

Gaffer - Chris Perry

Sound Recordist - Christian Wells

Music - Martin Walsh

Thanks to Alexandra Thorn and all at Rich Mix, Janine Chrichley at Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Himanshu Ojha, Maria Boghui, James Phillips and Rachael Eyre.