Hospice patients and staff feature in 'Island' - premiering at BFI London Film Festival

Emma from the Earl Mountbatten Hospice, shares this latest news on behalf of producers of ‘Island’ and ‘The Interval and the Instant’ – filmed over a one-year period at Earl Mountbatten Hospice, featuring hospice staff and patients. Ed

Paradogs Films and Hakawati are proud to present ISLAND by Steven Eastwood at the 61st BFI London Film Festival.

Across the water on the Island, four individuals experience the year in which their lives will end.  Illness progresses, relationships gently shift, and we are witness to rarely seen and intensely private moments. One 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 on the Isle of Wight, Island 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.  Like the ferries cyclically arriving and departing in this enigmatic landscape, the film appears buoyant, afloat. Death is shown to be natural and everyday but also unspeakable and strange.

Trailer
This two minute trailer for the film, sets the scene.

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.”

The Interval and the Instant
Alongside the World Premiere of Island is the launch of its sister project, a multi screen exhibition, ‘The Interval and the Instant’ at Fabrica, Brighton between the 8th October – 30th November 2017.

If you’d to see the film being screened (with Q&A) in London this month, details are