ISLAND (2017) is a feature-length film made through close engagement with individuals with terminal illness, and the involvement and oversight of palliative care professionals at Earl Mountbatten Hospice on the Isle of Wight. The film, and its related multiscreen video installation, The Interval and the Instant, follows several individuals as they experience the year in which their lives will end. Illness progresses, relationships gently shift, and we are witness to rarely seen and intensely private moments. One person shares their acceptance of death, whilst another is surrounded by a community in shock. ISLAND observes bedside care and the rhythm of breathing. In a pathology lab, microscopic biopsies in close-up show the interior of bodies, our biology.

Filmed over 12 months on the Isle of Wight, ISLAND is a life-affirming reflection on the phenomena of dying, portraying the transition away from active personhood and observing the last days and hours of life and the moment of death. Like the ferries cyclically arriving and departing in this enigmatic landscape, the film appears buoyant, afloat. Death is shown to be natural and everyday but also unspeakable and strange. ISLAND attempts to engender a space where the phenomena of dying can be given an image, addressing the deficit of moving images of death in contemporary western culture.

Following the screening of an excerpt of ISLAND, Steven Eastwood will facilitate a discussion with local palliative care professionals Dr. Naheed Dosani, Dr. Jenny Lau, and Dr. Kimberley Widger, exploring issues around end-of-life care through the lens of film to consider the reach and impact of the work in terms of art and visual culture, language and linguistics, medical ethics and law.