Seven songs for a long life

Seven songs for a long life

Filmmaker, Amy Hardie has been visiting Strathcarron Hospice in Scotland. Filming began gently with no agenda - the result is a feature length documentary, which is now being used as part of a UK-wide campaign to encourage the general public to talk more openly and confidently about the process of dying.

Produced by the Scottish Documentary Institute, the film will be launched during Hospice Care Week in October. The film will screen in cinemas, but most importantly it is available to hospices, palliative care organisations, carers and community groups - anyone who has an interest in engaging in or facilitating openness around death and dying. The documentary will be followed by an educational package of shorter clips and a toolkit for teaching.

Director Amy Hardie says:

“I came to Strathcarron with strict instructions: hang around. Being an artist in a medical establishment, you get good at hanging around. Feeling useless becomes your evolving art form. Finally the patients took pity on me. Maybe they were feeling a bit useless too. Disease can do that. Then they started singing to the camera. I loved it. Myself, I was banned from the singing circle right at nursery. But the songs that came from the patients at Strathcarron were so full of passion, dreams, anger, regret, acceptance…I felt it was their whole lives tunneling into the camera microphone.

Time is one of the greatest gifts someone can give you. When you sit with someone you are giving them your time. I spent four years filming in Strathcarron, listening, watching, and taking up time from the patients and the staff. It was a privilege.”

To find out more, to book the film for a screening or to ask for a preview screener please contact Rebecca Day at the Scottish Documentary Institute on: 0131 651 5872 or visit the website: www.sevensongsfilm.com