Harbouring Illness
London, UK
“Harbouring Illness” is a portrait of three women living with long-term health conditions in an East London neighbourhood. Through their stories, the film offers insight into the everyday challenges of living with chronic illness amidst an overstretched and underfunded healthcare system. It delves into the effects of social isolation and the struggles that come with maintaining a healthy life in the face of substandard living conditions. “Harbouring Illness” invites the viewer to contemplate new possibilities for living a flourishing life beyond the confines of conventional medical understandings of health and well-being.
“Multimorbidity, commonly defined as the co-occurrence of two or more long-term health conditions, is considered a major challenge to contemporary care services. Why multimorbidity poses such a challenge and what kind of challenge it is, is not straightforward. In the short documentary “Harbouring Illness” I explore the experiences of working-age adults living with multimorbidity in a socio-economically deprived borough in London.
Starting from a photography project, I involved three study participants in the production of this film. In particular, we explore the effects of social isolation and the struggles that come with maintaining a healthy life in the face of substandard living conditions.
I found that taking the time to interact closely with a specific location enabled me to forge deeper connections with that place, and to respond creatively in a way that sought connections between the traces of the past and the detail of the present. I found that following instinct and allowing the process to develop organically resulted in a piece that was led by the place interaction, rather than being dictated by preconceived ideas. And that the process of pulling together the audiovisuals with poetic ideas in the editing suite generated new creative ideas and a lasting connection to the place encountered.”