To Not Follow Under

To Not Follow Under considers the limits of empathy, and the point at which a person has to prioritise their own wellbeing in order to continue to care for another. The film title comes from an interview of R. D. Laing by Dr. Antony Clare where he asks, when talking about treating patients in distress: ‘That in a sort of way you could be overwhelmed by that which you were there to try, in some detached sense, to cope with?’ to which Laing replies: ‘I’ve never been personally tempted to follow someone over the edge.’ To Not Follow Under explores where the cut-off point might be in order to not follow someone ‘over the edge’, or ‘under’ into physical or emotional distress, through the voices of three people in positions of care or supervision: a sleep neurologist; a psychotherapist; and a deep sea rescue diver. Coupled with these accounts, we view scenes in a swimming pool, a hyperbaric chamber, and a sleep disorders centre, locating this question in these sites of potential transcendence.