Meditations on mortality

In 2020, director Tee Byford and his chum Dom Walker started making a film together. But, when scans revealed that Walker had a malignant brain tumour – measuring 2.5cm x 2.5cm – the project took a different turn. 

The director describes the resulting short, which was produced by Subliminal, as “a meditation on friendship, absurdity, grief and time, shaped from old rushes, voice notes and shared moments. As well as a film that was never finished that took on new meaning after [Dom’s] illness. It’s not about endings, but the strange continuity of things left unfinished."

The film bears repeat viewing, not only for Byford's editing and photograpy and Caleb Watson's heartrending music and sound, but for the exquisite words and poetry by Dom Walker himself. 

As he comes to accept his diagnosis, he muses on his newfound appreciation of the world – “wonder is everywhere” – and the epiphany that is living in the present moment – “Death: you stole fewer of my days than before. Fear: I lost you when I began to live here.”