Eternal Media is a media production social enterprise and charity, located in Wrexham, that makes high impact documentary films. It was founded by Marcus Fair, who is in long-term recovery from a 25-year addiction to heroin and crack cocaine. Late last year, I interviewed Lucke Gabriel about his work with Eternal Media over the past few years. This has involved production of a number of high quality films.
Lucke is a local boy from Wrexham who went on to gain a First Class Honours degree in Media Studies from Bangor University. He joined Eternal Media, as a volunteer, in 2018 because of his keen interest in both addiction and filmmaking. Lucke spoke to me about various Eternal Media projects in which he was involved. This is the first of a two-part story focusing on Lucke’s description of The Voyage to Recovery.
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In 2021, clients and staff of nine Early Intervention in Psychosis services [1] from across the UK took part in a ‘Voyage to Recovery’ around the UK coastline, collectively sailing 1,700 miles over eight weeks on the 80-foot sailing ketch Faramir, which was provided by the Cirdan Sailing Trust. Filming and editing ‘The Voyage to Recovery,’ which told the story of seven young service users of Adferaid Recovery in North Wales sailing on the Faramir off the south coast of England, has been one of Lucke’s favourite Eternal Media experiences. The project was funded by Adferiad and Eternal Media, the social enterprise.
Lucke travelled to Portsmouth and took the ferry over to Cowes on the Isle of Wight with Sam Rowlands, who had participated in the first Eternal Media Film Academy sponsored by the Department for Work and Pensions and was now acting as a volunteer. The pair spent two days and one night with the young men, a clinical psychologist from Bangor University, an Adferiad Recovery Service Manager, and the boat’s crew (members of the Cirdan Trust and Faramir’s captain).
The sailing trip is a form of Adventure Therapy which serves multiple functions: it allows people in need of help to engage in physical activities and learn to deal with adversity, thereby building up their confidence, self-esteem and resilience, and help them deal with stressors in their everyday life; see others dealing with difficult situations; build relationships, and improve communication skills and teamwork. In the film, Mike Jackson described his role as a clinical psychologist:
‘Traditionally, that means sitting in a clinic room with someone talking about their problems and looking to find ways together to solve problems and to move on in life, and to come to terms with difficult things. The young people we are working with here find that extremely difficult. They really don’t want to sit in a room and have an intense conversation as a way of expressing their feelings. What we’ve found is that it usually works better to get outside and have some space where conversation like that can arise, but they are not feeling under pressure.’
Dan Bartlett, a Service Manager at Adferaid Recovery in North Wales added:
‘So our idea is to give these people an experience and a taste of adversity, but managing it alongside them. So that they have got somebody they know and trust, and that they can turn to, and help to build up that resilience to that stress, which is what we believe is a big part of what causes psychosis. An inability to deal with everyday stress.’
When they arrived at the dock where Faramir was moored, Lucke and Sam learnt they would be sleeping for one night on the boat in bunk beds with the others, whilst it was moored in Cowes. They were warned by the boat’s crew that if they fell off the deck when the boat was at sea, there was only a 50% chance of their being rescued.
Marcus, who hates being on either the sea or mountains, had to go through his own adversity while his colleagues were engaged in nerve-wracking filming—and worrying about falling overboard—on the high seas. He had the smooth ferry ride over to Cowes and then sat in a van operating a drone ‘with a double sausage and egg McMuffin, hash brown and coffee to hand!’
During the day, Lucke and Sam were engaged for hours filming cutaway shots of the wide range of activities on the boat, such as the young men pulling on ropes to raise the sails or steering the boat, or the boat’s bow ploughing through the waves. They, like the young men, wore a harness connected via a safety line to a jackline on the boat. This was not just for their own safety, but also allowed them to lean out from the side of the boat to shoot some exciting looking film.
Lucke had never sailed before, so initially he was not prepared for the tacking procedures, when the bow of the boat is turned through the wind in order to change direction, causing the sails to shift from one side to the other. He was thrown around violently on a number of occasions. Eventually, he adapted to the tacking process and also plucked up enough courage to move to the bow where there appeared to be more action and more waves breaking onto the boat.
Sam and Lucke had to be on their toes the whole time, not putting their cameras down unless nature called, so that they could capture special moments that might be used in the final edit. They also interviewed the young men on the boat. The filmmakers found themselves digging deeper and deeper into the stories told by the young men, as they were so interesting and thought-provoking. They learnt a great deal about the challenges the young men faced and were trying to overcome in their everyday life.
Lucke noted that the young men were reluctant to get involved in the various activities when the boat first sailed. There was little conversation between them and a good deal of hesitation when they were asked to do something. Some were almost hiding away to avoid engaging in the activities.
Pippa Kirchmann, lead for the Cirdan Trust, was yelling out instructions and encouragement throughout the day and had almost lost her voice by the time the boat docked back in Cowes. The crew were looking concerned, but kept encouraging the young men. Some of the young men were feeling ill, including Sam Rowlands who was caught throwing up on film. Lucke was proudly feeling fine, until he eventually succumbed to feeling sick.
As the day progressed, the young men became increasingly accepting of their situation: ‘We are at sea and there’s nothing I can do about it. I may as well get involved in something and see what happens.’ They started to pay more attention to Pippa and the crew, and became increasingly involved in the various activities in which they were tasked. They began to see positive results from their efforts and interactions. And their enthusiasm for what they doing increased throughout the rest of the day, as did their various skills.
In the evening, the clinical psychologist Mike Jackson talked with the young men. The respect and appreciation he was shown was tangible, no doubt created by their prior interactions in North Wales. The conversation was very light and casual, and Lucke got the feeling that Mike was trying to ensure that all the young men got to know, and connect with, each other. There was a general discussion relating to how the voyage was going to date. Both Lucke and Sam fell asleep that night, and then woke up in the morning, with their cameras still in their hands. They didn’t want to miss anything that might be used in the final edit.
[1] Early Intervention in Psychosis services are ‘multi-disciplinary teams set up to seek, identify and reduce treatment delays at the onset of psychosis and promote recovery by reducing the probability of relapse following a first episode of psychosis.’
Read about the exciting second day the boys experienced in The Voyage to Recovery, Part 2.
