Long Live My Happy Head

Broadcast Info
2022 (87 mins)
Description
What would you do if you were told you had a dramatically life shortening illness when you were 32 years old? Start making comic books about it of course! Well, that’s what Gordon did anyway. Gordon is a Scottish comic book artist with a big bushy beard, very expressive eyebrows oh, and an inoperable, incurable, high grade malignant brain tumour. By making autobiographical comics about his experience, he is able to communicate his thoughts and reactions to cancer in a medium and a language that is disarming, accessible and inviting. Gordon is now approaching his 40th birthday and he has found the love of his life, Shawn a warm hearted and protective American who lives in Bath County, Virginia. Their relationship may be long distance, but they talk on the phone everyday they’re not together and visit each other as often as possible. Although his previous comics looked at his own personal experiences, for his next book Gordon has chosen to focus on the people who look after people with cancer the carers. His tumour is growing again though, and he’s on chemotherapy whilst meeting and interviewing people who have cared for and lost their dearest loved ones to the very same disease that is killing him. It’s a profound process through which he hopes to gain an understanding of what Shawn will have to go through when his condition worsens. Covid 19 halts travel and forces Gordon, with a compromised immune system, to shield indoors from the virus. This devastatingly coincides with the news that his chemo is not working and he may have less than a year to live. Shawn feels utterly powerless trapped in the States and struggles to come to terms with not being there for Gordon when he most needs him. Creating his next comic gives Gordon a purpose as he stays locked away in his apartment, but it is the love and support he receives from his friends and from Shawn that really keep him going. Moments of happiness and laughter punch through the uncertainty and fear of lockdown and as the world begins to open back up, Gordon and Shawn can finally be together again and an exhibition of the work Gordon has created whilst confined to his home gives hope for life in a post pandemic world. LONG LIVE MY HAPPY HEAD is a film about brain cancer and comic books, but it’s fundamentally a love story. We journey with Gordon and Shawn through one of the most difficult times of their lives, experiencing their crushing pain and pure elation along the way, only to see them emerge from the other side even stronger than before. Through intimately captured observational footage and video diary, stylized key interviews and animations created from Gordon’s comic illustrations, this film immerses the audience in Gordon’s world, and reveals how art, love and a sense of humour can soothe our deepest fears of mortality and losing the people we care about.
Genre
Mental Health

How to cite this record

The Open University, "Long Live My Happy Head". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/241730 (Accessed 09 Jan 2025)