(Watch the video interview here)
, What Do I Do_ by Emma Davie & Louise Oswald_I_Am_Breathing_Doc_Filmcourage.png)
(Watch the video interview here)
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“Among the year’s most moving films.”
– The Hollywood Reporter
“Bleak, unflinching and moving, yet morbidly funny.”
– The Telegraph
“The film is alternately heartbreaking and disarmingly sardonic.”
– Basil Tsiokos, Indie Wire
“Genuinely powerful filmmaking…an intimate portrait of heartbreaking courage – a haunting and inclusive encounter with…time, experience and mortality.”
– Trevor Johnston, Sight and Sound
CONNECT WITH EMMA DAVIE AND LOUISE OSWALD
IAmBreathingFilm.com
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NEIL’S BLOG
Iambreathingfilm.com/plattitude
ABOUT THE FILM:
I AM BREATHING, the acclaimed feature documentary that has been tugging the heartstrings of audiences around the world at prestigious film festivals including IDFA, Hot Docs and Edinburgh, and on a special Global Screening Day on June 21, makes its U.S. theatrical premiere in New York Sept. 6-12 at IFC Center and in Los Angeles Sept. 13-19 at Laemmle Music Hall with additional national outreach screenings to be announced soon. In I AM BREATHING, filmmakers Emma Davie and Morag McKinnon craft a life-affirming portrait of the last months of Neil Platt, a 34-year-old architect and father from England diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s Disease also known as Motor Neuron Disease (MND) in the UK.
I AM BREATHING is a film about a man, when faced with the unimaginable, shares his own story in what he called, “a tale of fun and laughs with a smattering of upset and devastation.” Within a year, Neil Platt goes from being a healthy 30-something British bloke, with a great sense of humor, to becoming completely paralyzed from the neck down, due to the devastating illness he has inherited, ALS. As his body gets weaker, his perspective on life changes. His humor remains, but a new wisdom emerges:
“It’s amazing how adaptable we are when we have to be. It’s what separates us and defines us as human beings.”
Knowing he only has a few months left to live, and while he still has the ability to speak, Neil puts together a letter and memory box for his baby son Oscar and communicates his experience and thoughts about life in a blog (The Plattitude) – and in this film, which he was determined to make. The directness of his communication mingles with images of the sensory details of a life well lived, and makes us revalue the ordinary.
His blog posts form the film’s narration as he tells his own story through memories and impressions of his life – the sheer joy of falling in love, of partying with his mates, of fast motorbike rides. Through his determination to share his final journey, Neil makes us ask questions about our own lives.
Neil Platt was diagnosed with ALS in February 2008 by Professor Chris Shaw. Sadly, Neil lost his own personal battle with the disease a year later, but through his family, friends and this documentary he wanted to continue to raise awareness around this devastating illness…..read more about I AM BREATHING here.
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