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, 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.
The carer to a partner with a debilitating illness so often carries a vast unseen weight. A weight that will change everything. Perhaps we are not as in control as we continue to suppose. And perhaps in the fragility of such a realization, we might break wide open and come to understand what it is that life is asking of us.
A Portrait Series that has set out to capture the very human experience of Schizophrenia. Such experience might have something to show us all.
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.
Filming people with an absence of judgment or condition causes the subject to speak with an entirely original and courageous voice. It’s this voice that I’ve made my films from. This sequence exemplifies the tone of such a voice. A grand starting point if you are new here.
When we come to see each other without condition we are known. When we are known, we become aware that we belong to each other. And when we become aware that we belong to each other we are compelled to act accordingly, and this world changes for the better. These are essential notes on how best to experience these film portraits.