Mick, directed by Jefferson Grainger (Australia, 2023), joins our Focus on Ability programme as a quietly powerful short about ability and aspiration. The film touches on themes of achievement, motivation and the realities of living with illness and medical disability. It offers a respectful, human perspective on individual experience without spectacle, asking audiences to reflect on what success and independence can mean in different lives. Presented alongside other works that showcase talent and resilience, Mick contributes to the festival’s commitment to broadening how stories about disability are seen and understood. A thoughtful, intimate film for viewers interested in personal journeys and lived experience.
You're gliding around in an alien world and it's just the interactions you have with the animals is great and what you see is fantastic. It's just, it's very, very different. It's a nice break from the hustle and bustle of life. Christmas Day, December 2018, I started to feel quite sick and I had a really bad pain in my right glute. That night the pain became so intense I had to go to hospital. I just couldn't take the pain. Went back to the emergency department and then I went into the septic shop. So I went in to go to sepsis and then that night I was in intensive care. When I got to hospital I was so close to dying that I ended up getting, going into the resus room and then an emergency ambulance was called for me to take me to Concord to the ICU. My feet were turning black, my hands were black, my ears turned black, my nose turned black. So it actually looked like I'd been climbing Mount Everest. And there's a point in the burns unit when you go from survival to realising you can live and just, yeah, just basic things that you take for granted like not being able to feed yourself. It's just lack of independence. It takes a lot of work to get back to that independence level. Nick's a very determined guy. I've said this from the very beginning when he first got sick and the doctors were all sort of questioning whether he was going to make it. He's never ever given up on anything in his life. He doesn't give up. So I'm a bilateral below elbow. I basically just drive the wheelchair with my arm and I'm pretty good at it now. Now I can zip around pretty much anywhere. Oh, the chair's fantastic. I can take the kids to school. It's pretty much just, it's freedom. Yeah, that I think just, you know, makes him feel like a dad. I'm incredibly proud of Nick and his determination and his positivity and how hard he works. I don't think I've ever known anyone who has the stamina and works as hard as he does. I'm really thankful actually that he's the kind of person he is because it'd be a very different picture if he wasn't. I don't get close. I probably just appreciate the simple things more than the big things. It's a different outlook on life and you just appreciate what you've got.
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Mick by Jefferson Grainger (2023)
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Mick
by Jefferson Grainger - OPEN ENTRANT DOCUMENTARIES
