Emma: Amy, you are fascinated with death. In your press kit for THE EDGE OF DREAMING you speak about how it started with the death of your mother and then continued when you had to face the possibility of your own death, as portrayed in 'Dreaming'. In the process of making these films you have researched death extensively and are now developing a new documentary to be set in a hospice.

What motivates your fascination with death? Are there specific answers that you are looking for, and are these answers about dying or about living?

Amy: Bertold Brecht said we need, as individuals, to learn about dying. Montaigne wrote his essays (and coined the term, essay) as writings grappling with his own death. Our consciousness is enormous, and expands out of time. But it is housed in this frail, time-limited body. How we can we not wrestle with these paradoxes?

Did you learn anything new about living and dying, or living with the prospect of dying, through your engagement with the Maggie's Centre and the film TUESDAYS?

Amy: Life becomes more precious to me. I have begun to believe that our greatest attribute as human beings is our capacity for appreciation. The filming is evolving to act as a mirror to people at a very tender point in their lives. They connect powerfully to each other, to their families, to the world around them. I, and my camera,  am caught up and held in their connections.

In the UK and Ireland, you can now watch Amy's film THE EDGE OF DREAMING online or download it to your computer.

In the Distrify player below, choose between the streaming rental for £2.99 and the download-to-own for £4.99.

As you may know from watching THE EDGE OF DREAMING, Amy has been involved in a number of science documentaries.

Given she is probably too modest to mention this, I'll break the news here: STEM CELL REVOLUTIONS, a film made by Amy in close collaboration with scientist Clare Blackburn, just won the Vedere La Scienza Fesival in Milan, Italy. 

You can read the jury's statement on the film's website. This documentary will soon be released online and on DVD. You can sign up to get notified.

Congratulations to Amy and Clare, and also to Cameron who made the beautiful animations!

Amy will be screening THE EDGE OF DREAMING on Friday 16th and running a workshop on Saturday 17th. Book your ferry to the Outer Hebrides now. :-)

Documentary makers often come from journalism: they are socially and politically engaged, and incredibly good at investigation – digging the dirt, winkling out false claims, getting behind spin and unearthing the facts. UK television has built a strong body of work based on this tradition. It fits in with our politics by debate and democratic ideals. It results in guidelines not to show our films to our subjects – that is seen as undermining impartiality.

But for those of us who see documentary as a dialogue with our subjects, as a mirror to reflect their lives or dreams or hopes, impartiality is not the right aim. 

Life, death, and the power of the unconscious. Amy Hardie, filming.

A documentary director/producer with several international awards, Amy Hardie graduated from the National Film and Television School with the BP Expo award for best UK graduation film. She set up the Scottish Documentary Institute in 2004 with Noe Mendelle, and Docspace, dedicated to increasing an audience for serious documentaries. 

The Edge of Dreaming

This is the trailer for Amy's acclaimed documentary film, THE EDGE OF DREAMING. (The DVD is available on Amazon.)

This review is from the Guth Gafa Film Festival in Ireland:

Amy Hardie’s powerful film Edge of Dreaming headlines the 5th Guth Gafa International Documentary Film Festival – it’s a remarkable story about premonition, family and the power and reach of the human mind. Festival director Neasa Ni Chianáin believes Hardie’s film sums up all we fear and admire in our own psyches.

“It’s a profoundly optimistic film, an illustration of the process that we all experience but few understand – the dream.”

 “Apart from the fact that the film is beautifully shot and constructed there is a sense that Hardie has delivered to us a means of taming the dream. The edge she speaks of is the line between the conscious and the subconscious; madness and reason; this world and another. It’s a hugely empowering film and perfect to open Guth Gafa.”