Directed by Pratap Rughani, this documentary short was commissioned by Kate Adams MBE, artist, Director and co-founder of the pioneering artist-led arts organisation Project Art Works the Hastings-based arts organisation that explores and promotes new, practical and philosophical approaches to the meaningful involvement in visual art of people who have complex impairments. Their work embraces the services, professionals and processes that surround people who require support in all areas of their lives.
Please watch the trailer of “Justine” here (Video: 2 minutes 2 seconds) and the film here (Video: 26 minutes 49 seconds)
“Cinematically, the film represents Justine with breathtaking delicacy and sets a high ethical bar that challenges future filmmakers to rise to the same level of awareness and respect when documenting the lives of disabled individuals.”
Cineaste review of “Justine” Winter 2015 by Associate Professor Deirdre Boyle, The New School
“The film had an enormous effect on me. The stillness of the camera like a series of photographs incites us into Justine’s life.”
Brigitte Lardinois, former Cultural Director of Magnum Photos, Acting Director of the Photography and the Archive Research Centre, UAL
The film “is for Justine’s family, for the documentarian’s theorisation of research ethics in practice and for an audience who need to see alternative faces in documentary films.”
Dr E. Anna Claydon, essay University of Leicester
Justine rarely speaks.
She communicates through looking, gesture and the body language of her movement and interactions.
What can be understood across the language divide?
This documentary portrait of a young woman living with severe neurological disorders observes the close rhythms of her days in the run-up to her milestone birthday, at a crucial moment for Britain’s strained welfare system.
