COMING SOON:
Prof Michele Aaron – the academic behind Life:Moving – talks with Dr Jed Jerwood about the importance of the films and the ‘toolkits’ that they have developed as a result of the project.
About Life:Moving
The Life: Moving project was a unique collaboration between researchers, a filmmaker and hospice patients that explores the power of film to communicate the meaningful and honest experiences of those affected by terminal illness.
Through weekly workshops, participants at John Taylor Hospice were given the skills and support to create their own audio-visual stories. The six films that emerged not only challenge the misrepresentation of the dying, rife in society, but provide invaluable insight into the participants’ experience and needs. They also show how film can be used to shift individual and social attitudes, and practices, concerning human vulnerability.
Discover Life:Moving’s research findings and recommendations in our Scoping Report.
We’ve now created two training resources – a clinical toolkit and a creative toolkit – in order to share the films, and the research behind them, with a wider audience.
Project timeline
The Life:Moving Films have now been shared with communities on three continents. Through the toolkits, we’re hoping that they will enhance clinical and wellbeing practice, shift understandings of human vulnerability, and support the development of similar therapeutic and creative projects around the world.
2016 - 2017
Workshops at John Taylor Hospice: Six films produced
We thank all the staff at JTH in Erdington, Birmingham, for their support.
2017 - 2018
Films and Research shared regionally, nationally and in Europe
Following the local launch of the exhibition, the films were displayed and discussed at various clinical and cultural settings.
Learn more about our past ‘Events’
2019
Life:Moving Onwards
International
dissemination
Thanks to additional AHRC funding, we were able to share the films and research in a wide range of clinical, cultural and community settings in East Africa and Australia.
Learn more about ‘Life: Moving Onwards’
2020 - 2021
Development of Online Training Resources
The completion and launch of the Toolkits were scuppered by the covid pandemic.
2023
The Life:Moving Toolkits launch at Compassionate Communities Conference in Birmingham, UK July 11-12 2023
The Participants
At the heart, and as the heart, of this project are the six individuals to whom it is indebted:
Yussef Ahmed, Andrew Burchall, Rob Homer, Fran Tierney, Keisha Walker and Peter
Learn more about them and their films here






Toolkits
We’ve built two training resources out of the Life:Moving project.
The Clinical toolkit has been designed for the end of life care community, for all those who wish to better understand the experience of the terminally ill, and for anybody terminal illness, it provides a framework for using the films in clinical, community or educational settings in a safe, structured and generative way.
The Creative toolkit (in progress) provides a framework for using the films and research as best practice for the replication of the project – or provision of a similar project – in clinical, community or creative settings.
Who is the Clinical Toolkit for?
- Those who wish to better understand the experience of the terminally ill
- Palliative Care professionals
- Community groups / Death cafes facilitating discussions of dying
- Hospice Outreach workers
Who is the Creative Toolkit for?
- Hospices or community groups looking to replicate the Life:Moving project
- Filmmakers, artists and other practitioners interested in developing their ethical practice
Life:Moving core team
The Life:Moving Full Research Team
Prof. Michele Aaron
University of Warwick
Dr Jed Jerwood
John Taylor Hospice
Briony Campbell
Independent filmmaker
Prof. Russell Beale
University of Birmingham
Dr Cath Lambert
University of Warwick
Dr Lisa Metherell
Birmingham City University
Dr Adrian Banting
Research Fellow




