Bill Clark

The following is a piece I was asked to write for Directors UK in support of their disability group. Recently, I attended the Directors UK Disability Working Group’s Zoom event “Ask Us Anything”. Although I am not disabled, I have been fortunate enough to know and to make a film about someone who is, so for a long time, the problems of living and working whilst being disabled were a daily concern of mine. For a decade I worked on  Starfish , the story of Tom Ray, who, like me, worked in the film business, like me, had a wife and two kids he loved beyond dreams, but who, unlike me, suffered a terrible, life threatening illness that left him a quadriplegic amputee, only escaping death by surrendering much of his life. Tom Ray working as a body double on the set of Starfish. Photo: Bill Clark. The strength I saw Tom and his wife, Nicola, draw on to survive, keep their family together and grow their relationship and conquer those immense challenges, both rocked the belief I had in my own c