Film : Where There Is Life

The task of caring for his ter­min­ally ill wife Mar­garet falls squarely on the broad shoulders of Steph­en Lee. He would not have it any oth­er way. Wel­ling­ton film maker Gwen Isaac’s obser­va­tion­al doc­u­ment­ary was shot over the four years fol­low­ing East­bourne woman Margaret’s dia­gnos­is with motor neur­on dis­ease. We watch as the focus of the small fam­ily shifts from rais­ing a young daugh­ter to provid­ing pal­li­at­ive care to the wife and moth­er. It’s a bit­ter, los­ing battle in which Mar­garet fiercely asserts the iden­tity her fail­ing body denies her, while her care­givers increas­ingly endure the injustice of being per­ceived by their patient as the disease’s ena­blers.

Steph­en also has to earn a liv­ing and take care of Imo­gen, aged ten at the time of dia­gnos­is. Observing the child’s self-pre­serving sep­ar­a­tion from the relent­less tragedy unfold­ing at the oth­er end of the house, Isaac’s film is often start­ling in its cand­our. Where There Is Life also meas­ures the susten­ance Mar­garet receives from her ardent Chris­ti­an faith. Steph­en char­ac­ter­ises his devo­tion as noth­ing more than the ful­fil­ment of his mar­riage vows. It is a view this film hon­ours with total respect.

The film was self-fun­ded, until the NZ Film Com­mis­sion gran­ted Gwen some money to fin­ish the film at Park Road Post. The film is part of the 2017 Wel­ling­ton Inter­na­tion­al Film Fest­iv­al and will screen on the 5th, 8th and 13th August. There will be screen­ings later in the year through­out New Zea­l­and – go to www.wherethereislifemovie.comto keep abreast of that.