The Gift
What can I say...you have created an absolutely stunning film. It is so rich with it's imagery and Barbara's poignant words and the two together create a wonderful piece of art in its own right. Sam Hill
The Gift is my latest independent documentary. Filmed across two years, in between client-based work and largely edited during lockdown (I taught myself Logic Pro X so I could create the music), it's a labour of love dealing with creativity, life, death and the beauty to be found in the time we have...
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The Gift follows fun, vibrant artist, Barbara Bird, during the final year of her life and beyond her death. Fighting a severe form of breast cancer, we share time with Barbara as she comes to terms with - and celebrates - her own mortality, challenging what makes a good life, a good death, a person? Is it what they say, what they do or the memories they leave with us?
In her typical, fiercely honest style, Barbara was determined to transform notions of death, allowing her own body to be used as art, hoping to help bring meaning and beauty to the loss so many of us have recently, or will, experience throughout life, while offering hope to the living. The Gift is Barbara’s last work of art. A story that peers into the soul of a person with nothing left to prove or lose. Throughout, Barbara’s approach to creativity, art, life and death intermingle, building their own remarkable human collage that will leave viewers as inspired as they are moved. The Gift is currently being submitted to film festivals. |
Trailer
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What a beautiful and moving film, you have created something that really brings home the fleetingness of life, the preciousness of life and each moment. I love it! Holly Lyon-Hawk
Barbara Bird's Life, Death and Beyond - how The Gift was made...
As part of a film project to interview people aware of their own mortality, Living Well Dying Well contacted me in 2018, introducing me to Barbara Bird, a wonderfully brash Californian artist living in Hastings. Another lover of horror with a black sense of humour, we immediately got on. Our first interview spanned everything, from her art to the nature of time. But one thing stuck in my mind – during the interview, Barbara mentioned that she wanted to leave her body to science.
The idea of following a human being through life, death and beyond struck me as magical.
After a few weeks, I worked up the courage to ask Barbara if we could continue filming. If I could get to know her a little better as a person, as an artist and keep filming her up to and beyond her death. This was not an easy thing to ask and I’m incredibly grateful to Barbara, her husband, Mark and her End of Life Doula, Sam, who were all hugely supportive.
The way we approached the film was an an artistic collaboration. We’d discussed how similar her artistic process was to editing video, so we decided to treat our film like a collage - a visual journey that would try to create a sense of Barbara’s life, death and art. Over the next year and a half, we got to know each other pretty well. Naively, it never occurred to me until too late that I was becoming friends with someone who was gradually slipping beyond life’s grasp.
After Barbara’s death, I met with Holly, Barbara’s funeral director, to visit and film Barbara’s body. My experience of death is quite limited and I had no idea if I’d manage. Would it be too upsetting? Would I be able to focus on filming - could I make her proud?
I walked into the room, took a deep breath then gazed at her silent, static being. Alive, Barbara was such a vibrant, animated human, filled with laughter. Cheeky, playful. This was Barbara and not Barbara. Her stillness was beatific, serene. Her breath had vanished, along with all evidence of suffering. Seeing her so at peace had a curiously uplifting effect. And so I continued our creative conversation, our collaboration, by filming her, by treating her body as the ultimate piece of art.
Thanks to Barbara, my life is greatly enriched. And thanks to our film, my hope is that she’ll continue to touch lives through a new, digital existence. That others can share in her life, her death and her art, inspiring them to celebrate the preciousness and impermanence of their own lives.
The idea of following a human being through life, death and beyond struck me as magical.
After a few weeks, I worked up the courage to ask Barbara if we could continue filming. If I could get to know her a little better as a person, as an artist and keep filming her up to and beyond her death. This was not an easy thing to ask and I’m incredibly grateful to Barbara, her husband, Mark and her End of Life Doula, Sam, who were all hugely supportive.
The way we approached the film was an an artistic collaboration. We’d discussed how similar her artistic process was to editing video, so we decided to treat our film like a collage - a visual journey that would try to create a sense of Barbara’s life, death and art. Over the next year and a half, we got to know each other pretty well. Naively, it never occurred to me until too late that I was becoming friends with someone who was gradually slipping beyond life’s grasp.
After Barbara’s death, I met with Holly, Barbara’s funeral director, to visit and film Barbara’s body. My experience of death is quite limited and I had no idea if I’d manage. Would it be too upsetting? Would I be able to focus on filming - could I make her proud?
I walked into the room, took a deep breath then gazed at her silent, static being. Alive, Barbara was such a vibrant, animated human, filled with laughter. Cheeky, playful. This was Barbara and not Barbara. Her stillness was beatific, serene. Her breath had vanished, along with all evidence of suffering. Seeing her so at peace had a curiously uplifting effect. And so I continued our creative conversation, our collaboration, by filming her, by treating her body as the ultimate piece of art.
Thanks to Barbara, my life is greatly enriched. And thanks to our film, my hope is that she’ll continue to touch lives through a new, digital existence. That others can share in her life, her death and her art, inspiring them to celebrate the preciousness and impermanence of their own lives.
