Panic. Worthlessness. Failure. Low self-esteem.

The rush of feelings that comes after being laid off can be ugly, as described by people who've been through the experience and talk about it in a short film called, "Lemonade," scheduled to be shown tonight at the Melwood Screening Room in Oakland.

But the message that filmmaker Erik Proulx is trying to take around a country reeling from lost jobs is not a downer. The stories in his movie are those of marketing professionals who took the sucker punch as an opportunity to catch their breath and redirect their lives.

One woman becomes a yoga instructor and health adviser. One man starts a coffee business. Another takes the artistic skills he had been using for marketing work and becomes a full-time painter.

Mr. Proulx is in the film, too. When he lost his job at Arnold Worldwide in Boston in late 2008, he started a blog, Pleasefeedtheanimals.com, mainly targeted at unemployed marketing professionals. He began to hear from people who'd found something "weirdly positive" in the experience.

A plan to make a little video marketing the site evolved into a project to make a small film meant to inspire those going through the experience of job loss. Perhaps because of the timing - the Great Recession reverberated almost everywhere - those working on the project were able to get almost everything they needed donated, including film, camera rental and plane fares.

The result is a documentary-style piece with all the vivid colors and compelling stories of any commercial work. This is no homemade YouTube video.

And, striking at the perfect marketing moment, the film and Mr. Proulx have received a fair share of media attention, from Katie Couric on CBS to Fast Company magazine and regional outlets wherever the screenings are held. The film is available for viewing at Hulu.com, but at screenings like the one being hosted tonight by the Pittsburgh Ad Fed, Mr. Proulx holds a question-and-answer session afterwards.

The film naturally draws interest from the marketing community, because the subjects were all in that business hit hard by Americans' changing media habits. But Mr. Proulx would like to reach a broader audience as much as possible, because he thinks the message can help anyone.

"My best hope was that it would help people realign their thinking," he said in an interview this week. Even those who have jobs and expect to stay in them could benefit from taking a moment to remember what it was that made them happy in the first place, he said.

As for Mr. Proulx, he continues to work in marketing, but not as a member of a corporate staff. He has done freelance work and done some grant writing as well as some teaching assignments. "I'm a man of a thousand jobs right now," he said.

Soon he may be an author, too, as he has an agent pitching a "Lemonade" book based on all the stories that people continue to share with him about their work experiences.

There's always that ever present concern about making a go of it, but Mr. Proulx said he had come to the point where he trusts himself more to hustle and find opportunities than a big agency trying to adapt to the latest social networking concept.

Besides, he has concluded, "Job stability is a myth."

"Lemonade" will be shown at 6 p.m. at the Melwood Screening Room at 477 Melwood Ave., Oakland. Reservations are required online at lemonadeinpittsburgh.eventbrite.com but there is no fee.

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