A film that followed the last months of 4 Islander’s lives under the care of the Earl Mountbatten Hospice is to be premiered at the BFI London Film Festival this month.
‘ISLAND’, directed by Steven Eastwood, follows 4 individuals and takes a look at rarely seen and intensely private moments as their illnesses progress and relationships gently shift.
In the 90-minute film, which features both staff and patients at the Newport-based Earl Mountbatten Hospice, 1 person shares their acceptance of death, whilst another is surrounded by a community in shock. ISLAND observes bedside care and the rhythm of breathing. In a pathology lab, microscopic biopsies in close-up show the interior of bodies, our biology.
Filmed over 12 months, ISLAND is a life-affirming reflection on the phenomena of dying, portraying the transition away from personhood and observing the last days and hours of life and the moment of death.
Steven Eastwood, Director says:
“I wanted to be witness to the moment of death, because I felt that this was taboo in our society, certainly taboo if the image didn’t originate from a familial relationship, like a partner or a sibling filming a loved one. I wanted to ask, why is that taboo, given that death happens every day and is as natural an event as birth?
“It’s clear to me that a person with a terminal diagnosis is denied a certain kind of participation in our culture. And because of this they are denied a certain kind of image. Their image is guarded, protected, sometimes with good intention but often without consulting the person going through the illness. The images we have are limited, by access and also by aesthetics – they tend to be medicalised, euphemistic, or metaphoric. I wanted to ask whether there can be an ethics of aesthetics and what happens when metaphor falls away and we are able to share in and directly see the process of dying.”
