Emma Davie’s and Morag McKinnon’s documentary, I Am Breathing, follows the last year of Neil Platt’s life after being diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. For many, the known face of MND is celebrated physicist Stephen Hawking, who has lived, quite remarkably and beyond all expectation, with the disease for many decades.
However, for so many people who develop MND – the cause of which is still unknown – their life expectancy is usually extremely short, between one or two years. MND closes down the human body’s motor skills and finally results in a person no longer being able to breath.
There are variations in MND. Some lose their ability to speak before they lose limb functions. Neil Platt, whose first child Oscar had just been born, began to notice problems with the use of his legs. The documentary, clearly made on a micro-budget, takes an unflinching look at what MND can do to a person.
Framed by Neil’s own words, especially from his blog created to explain his experience of living and dying from MND, he wrestles with how he can leave advice to his son and to generate interest in MND, all the while the clock is rapidly ticking away.
As Neil’s body depletes, his mind remains perfectly intact. He contemplates his death and the life of his wife and baby son. The horror of being trapped in a body while being completely aware of every sensation and the depths of despair that one can be plunged into are juxtaposed with images and home movies of Neil as a younger, healthy man.
Looking at a person staring immobilised while his death approaches is far from a comforting experience but the honesty and dignity of I Am Breathing will hopefully fulfil Neil’s wish to raise awareness and research into the death sentence that is MND.
Mairéad has awarded I Am Breathing three Torches of Truth
