‘Gina’ by Wendell Cooke and Jeremy Macey

This three-minute documentary film is about Gina, a New Zealand woman living with a rare genetic condition that affects her ears, eyes and larynx. Gina is shown living in near darkness and silence, her room covered in large written instructions on aspects of care such as how to approach her or how to position her on the bed. Close-ups of her hands and face, the latter covered in ear protectors and an eye-mask, are shown, as well as a relative entering the room, whispering in her ear and holding her hand. At the same time, a Q+A in captions is shown onscreen in which Gina, who cannot speak, explains her condition and her wishes around legalising voluntary assisted dying so she can end her life.

The film powerfully evokes Gina’s situation through contemplative music and atmospheric shots of her everyday existence, yet also leaves space to show that Gina is capable of enjoying aspects of her life: the film ends with the camera focusing on a note that says “I love HUGS but I can’t hug you back because of my elbows. But don’t let that stop you hugging me”, perhaps intending to suggest that an assisted death would be similarly compassionate. The film is produced by members of the Wellington branch of Exit International and was originally envisaged as a series of talking heads from the group. However, the directors overhauled their approach when they heard about Gina because they felt her story was so convincing. Gina is played in the film by her sister Roslyn who lives with a less severe version of the same undiagnosed condition. The film has over 132,000 views on Vimeo, over 100,000 of which were from before assisted dying was legalised in New Zealand. Gina’s case has been mentioned in the New Zealand and Queensland parliaments and was picked up by several tabloid newspapers outside New Zealand. The film’s Facebook page confirms that Gina took her own life in 2018, before legalisation in New Zealand.