‘Helping You Help Them’ is a heartfelt, emotive story, which required the director to ensure the film didn’t fall into a more manipulative territory.

The director’s approach was to keep Nan and Gemma’s relationship as the central force of the story – filming them in careful close-ups, establishing their connection early through performance and intimate framing.

That connection also required the director to work closely with the two central performers, using rehearsal to tap into their own experiences and then letting that energy flow naturally into the scene.

The director also gave room in the edit for improvisation, giving the actors the freedom to find moments full of genuine emotion. This kept the emotionally heightened nature of the material feeling real and accessible, and set-up the film’s powerful final scene, in which we see two people who love one another connecting truly, through the power of memory, sport and technology.