A special screening of Unbreakable: The Mark Pollock Story, directed by award winning filmmaker Ross Whitaker, will take place in the Solstice Arts Centre in Navan at 7pm on Thursday 22nd January. All proceeds from the special screening will go to RehabCare’s The Meadows Children’s Respite Service in Navan, a residential respite service for over 70 children aged six to 18.
http://vimeo.com/105862807
The film follows the almost unbelievable tragedies that life has thrown at Mark and his resolve to move beyond them. Unbroken by blindness at 22, Mark was a Commonwealth Games medal winner and competed in ultra endurance races across deserts, mountains, and the polar ice caps and ten years after losing his sight he became the first blind person to race to the South Pole, a race that allowed him to finally put the demons of blindness behind him. But then, just four weeks from the day of his planned wedding to fiancée Simone, a fall 25 feet from a second story window left Mark near death and paralysed from the waist down.
Directed by Ross Whitaker (When Ali Came to Ireland; Saviours), this moving, fascinating film brings the audience to Mark’s bedside in the acute ward of a spinal hospital; blind, now paralysed and broken. The close friendship between Mark and the filmmaker has produced a delicate, deeply personal, intimate film. Six years in the making it tells the story of Mark’s eventual rehabilitation and his mission to find and connect people worldwide to fast track a cure for paralysis, a mission which gives the audience a glimpse of the frontiers of robotics and medical science.
Louise Tinne, community services manager, Meadows Children’s Respite Service, told the Meath Chronicle: “This is a great opportunity for people to see a really inspiring film about an Irish man who refused to let blindness and paralysis stop him from making a difference in the world and helping others with spinal injuries. I guarantee you that you will leave the theatre feeling in awe of him! And you will also be helping children with disabilities in Co. Meath as all the proceeds go to the services that we provide in The Meadows.”
Tickets are €10 and can be purchased from Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, on (046) 9092300 or www.solsticeartscentre.ie or by phoning Assumpta on (087) 284 8596.