The ability to see through the eyes of another holds the key to empathy, and I mean ‘see’ in its most expansive of definitions. And such empathy exists as a quality that might transform the complexion of everything. This film reveals the experience of a world through the eyes of paranoid schizophrenia.
Imagine your life, or your child’s life following its course and then an abrupt and brutal turn. The sudden onset of Schizophrenia. A violent shock to what was. A loss. At a loss. And a soul rendered desolate and alone.
‘It is like a miracle. I’ve got a son back that I thought I’d lost. We’re probably closer now than we’ve ever been but it did start in a difficult place.’ A film of hope and light from a seemingly dark and endless place.
In the complex landscape of Schizophrenia, I imagine Compassionate Care should not be absent. Care that is unconditional. Care that is full of hope and of possibility.
The Hospice Community at Joseph’s House in Washington DC hold the belief that no one should live, or die alone. Welcome to ‘On the Edge of Life and Death’. It’s the film title, because it is just that.
A Portrait Series that has set out to capture the very human experience of Schizophrenia. Such experience might have something to show us all.
The carer to a partner with a debilitating illness so often carries a vast unseen weight. A weight that can change so much. In the uncontrollable vulnerability of such a journey, one might break wide open. And in such fracture might exist vast questions.
This film explores the extraordinary change in a relationship between Mother and Daughter following the onset of dementia. It’s metaphorical for so many of the events that seek to challenge our lives. Events seemingly out of our control.
When we are seen without judgment or condition, we are known. When we are known, we become aware that we belong to each other. It is such an awareness that might change the world. These are essential notes on how best to experience these film portraits.