A very personal short film
I hesitated to share this film due to its deeply personal nature as a tribute to my late father, fearing it might intrude upon my family’s privacy. Filming dementia is strangely intimate thing to do, like crossing someones boundaries.
But it’s been really positively received by everyone who’s seen it, and it also really helped toward raising funds for a charity I recently ran a half marathon for.
Dementia and my father
My dad had dementia and was close to the end of his life when I made this, it still surprises me now how eloquent he is and clear on what’s important to him. Sharing it reminds me that when we’re creating stories, we can trust that by speaking from a private, personal and seemingly incomprehensible place, it is often the most resonant.
Why it’s important to share personal films
The psychologist Carl Rogers knew it when he said “what is most personal is most universal”. What surprised me about this film is just how easily it came together. It took an afternoon to shoot and perhaps a day to edit – no time at all, really.
This storytelling is me being myself
What’s behind that relative ease is an approach that I just wanted his words to speak for themselves with no particular ‘messaging’ or ‘call to action’ As it turns out, in the right context, a message was loud and clear regardless, and has moved people to donate.
