THE STORY | The Wind Once Whispered Project

A collaborative art, film, and healing project

The Wind Once Whispered began with a journey.

While grappling with his son’s cancer diagnosis, Belgian filmmaker Johan set out on a long run along the European coast. He carried with him a hand-painted kite, adorned with ribbons representing others facing cancer, those living with it, those caring for loved ones, and those remembering those lost.

The kite became a symbol of movement, endurance, and connection.
The journey became a journey, poetry and a film. Premiering internationally, Johan’s film The Wind Once Whispered speaks not only to illness, but to any experience of grief, trauma, loss, or transformation, the moments in life when forward motion feels impossible, yet somehow continues.

The Friday Harbor Film Festival introduced the film to the states at its 2025 festival. The film reached Pamela Hoke, a fine art painter, author, and breast cancer survivor. Recognizing her own journey reflected in the film, Pam saw its deeper invitation: and was inspired by the compelling videography meshed with healing poetry.  She felt compelled to paint some of the imagery, and with her years of publishing and communications experience, combined with her life-career as a nature painter grounded in sharing the journey of reconnecting with the natural world, the self and others. She wanted to expand the story beyond the screen and into lived, reflective, creative space.

Together, Johan and Pam are creating The Wind Once Whispered, American Edition, an interdisciplinary project designed to meet people where they are and invite gentle reconnection, and inspiration to overcome life’s challenges. They are now joined as a team of four with Robert Rock,  and Melinda Balkom.

Why This Matters Now

We are living through a period of collective strain and uncertainty:  medically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. Many people carry invisible grief. Many are navigating caregiving, illness, loss, or profound change without language or space to process it.

The Wind Once Whispered creates an invitation to explore this space of uncertainty. Through art, story, and reflection, the project offers moments of pause, connection, and shared humanity.

What the Project Includes

• A published American edition of the book, summarizing the film’s journey and poetry
  
• An accompanying guided journal for reflection, grief processing, and resilience
  
• Eight original fine art paintings created specifically for the project
  
• A traveling exhibition, film screenings, and facilitated conversations throughout 2026
  

The book, journal, and artwork will be completed by April 2026, with exhibitions and screenings continuing across the year.

Impact & Partnership

Proceeds from the project support:

• HOU(T) ME VAST vzw / De Lange Tocht (The Long Journey) Johan’s nonprofit organization, committed to supporting people and families facing cancer by transforming personal journeys into shared stories of endurance, connection, and hope.
  
• Pamela Hoke’s Social Purpose Organization, supporting creative healing and community-based resilience, along with her artistic endeavors as a painter on a mission to inspire harmony for people and planet.
  

Supporters help bring the book, artwork, screenings, and reflective experiences to communities who need them, through healthcare settings, arts organizations, educational institutions, and community spaces.

An Invitation

This project is for those who believe that healing is not linear or on a definitive timeline, it has ebbs and flows, that art can hold what words cannot, that by journaling our experiences helps us sense them fully so we can move forward, that sharing our stories helps us and others, and that even in the hardest seasons, a special life force energy still carries us forward.

We invite you to become part of The Wind Once Whispered, as a supporter, host, or partner and help bring this story into the world.