DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Over the last decade, I’ve been making narrative films, honing my craft to gesture at lived experience. Through the years, I’ve met people far more interesting than any character I could write. Harry Warner is one of those people. Where he lives is undeniably cinematic - a cob structure melting into the earth, with little hand-built structures scattered about, comprising a kitchen, a greenroom, a meditation room, and an outhouse. Harry is an imposing figure, with sun-spotted skin and white wayward hair, and a little cross earring that dangles from his ear. At first glance, we couldn’t be more different. Yet filmmaking is a means through which we can be vulnerable with one another in a way that wouldn’t be possible without a film camera mediating our relationship. And in doing so, some parallels between us have emerged. Our relationship deepened one day when I showed up with the camera, unable to hold back tears and admitted to Harry “the black dog was back”. Harry spent the morning opening up about his own battle with depression, eventually finding a grimy copy of his book “How to Heal Depression Naturally”. I felt seen by Harry and my mood lifted. Unbeknownst to either of us at the time, cancer was growing in our bodies. Harry and I would eventually be diagnosed within a month of one another.
- Liz Cairns, Director of “My Friend Harry”