Directed by Rebecca Thomson
Synopsis: Sally is a clown, Amanda is a nurse, and they are fierce friends bound together by the most awful shared experience – both caring for a child who is very sick. For Sally and Amanda having someone else who understands what it is to reside in perpetual grief, battle against bureaucracy and having to pre-pay your child’s funeral, makes the experience a little less lonely. Realising the value of this connection Sally and Amanda decided to start a podcast where they share their beautiful friendship with the world – honest and raw conversations about the daily struggles of being a carer, plentiful gin sampling and finding a laugh in the face of darkness.
Director’s Statement: From the moment I started listening to the podcast Gin In A Mug, recommended by a friend, I was hooked. I fell in love with the hosts Sally and Amanda, who discuss with such candour, heart and often humour, the many challenges of caring for a child with a life limiting condition. It’s a tough subject, and one that a lot of people just don’t know how to talk about, or whether they should be talking about it. I felt huge admiration for Amanda and Sally for creating this public platform to have those difficult and deeply personal conversations, and judging by their reviews and feedback it seems many other people appreciated it too. In listening to their story it became abundantly clear to me that Sally and Amanda represented the theme of ‘grit’ in spades, and I really loved that part of their ability to survive came through their friendship, of having someone else who understands, and through their ability to find laughter and joy in tough times.
So, I approached Amanda and Sally about making a film together, and I am very grateful they decided to trust me to tell this story with them. There were many and varied challenges in making the film including trying to tell a complex story involving two different families in a short format, telling a visual story about two women having conversations, filming vulnerable people during a pandemic, and of course telling the story respectfully and in a way that reflects the spirit of these wonderful women and their own special type of grit.