I am Breathing/ Letter to Oscar

Emotional moment when Emma Davie welcomed her audience at the premiere of the film at Munt cinema. She stressed how much her main character, Neil Platt, who died three years ago, wanted the film to be made, to have a focus put on his disease, Motor Neurone Disease and consequently to have more medical research done in that field.

Emma Davie, who made the film with Morag McKinnon, made the audience aware that the family was attending the screening. The main protagonist, however, together with Neil, was not there, his name is Oscar, he is the little boy, who runs around his father, the film could have been entitled ”Letter to Oscar”, which is what Neil is writing, a letter, added with a beautiful ”memory box” for his son to remember his father. Remember Humphrey Jennings ”Diary for Timothy”?

Well, he – Oscar, must be 5-6 years old – now, has a film that is made for him and for a big audience, I am sure.

Here at idfa there are two hit lists of most watched films. One is at ”Docs for Sale”, where buyers come to watch, ”I am Breathing” is number 4 with 44 screenings by November 21. The other is the Audience Award Top 10, where ”I am Breathing” is number 7. Well deserved!

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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