"What Doesn't Kill Me"

Tonights Guest Is Rachel Meyrick,

She is a UK based film editor and director.  She began editing commercials in London in the early 90’s.  After leaving commercials she began as a freelancer working on documentaries and short films.  She cut her first feature film in 2000.  Since then she has worked with many directors and created many short films herself.

In recent times Rachel worked with director Jason Barker on his debut documentary feature A Deal with the Universe, about his journey to become pregnant.  Most recently she is completing a documentary feature film: Sweepstakes Hero with director Clair Titley looking at a 1998 Japanese TV show that challenges a man to live on competition prizes alone in 1998 for worldwide release in 2022.

What doesn’t kill me is her first feature as director and is about domestic violence and child custody in the US.  It began in 2011 as a short about Charlotta, an amazing DV survivor in Oklahoma but the story soon spiralled when Rachel found out that mothers fleeing domestic violence were losing their children to abusive fathers who sought custody.  What followed was 6 years of journeys to and from to the US to find other mothers and experts who had experience of this aspect of family court.  The film did not attract any funding  so Rachel relied on completing all the roles herself and two small crowdfunding campaigns to pay for the practical costs of filming.  Rachel is a single parent and still lives in the UK.

You can watch it here if you have a library card or are a student:  https://www.kanopy.com/product/what-doesn-t-kill-me