Award-Winning Film Shows at West Kortright Film Festival

By Matthew Avitabile

WEST KORTRIGHT — An award-winning documentary which was shown at the West Kortright Film Festival has picked up significant attention. We interviewed Martin Krafft, who created the documentary showing the struggles with cancer of his friend Rachel Heisham.

Krafft created his first feature-length documentary and learned a lot in the process. This allowed him to improve his cinematography and be present with Heisham during her experience with cancer. Heisham lived in a rural community in Pennsylvania and later moved to Montana.

During the process, Krafft had to learn a number of different topics, having to fundraise in order to complete the film.

“It was an incredibly challenging experience,” he said. “But I never really doubted that I needed to do it. The more I did it the more commitment I gave to the project.”
This included a new camera, sound gear, and more.

“I committed my life to the project,” he said.

Krafft dedicated himself to Heisham during her illness, going so far as to travel to Montana to sleep on her couch, drive her to appointments, and cook for her.

“I got involved in her life in a way that many documentary filmmakers don’t,” he said.

Rather than removing himself from the story, him being there “was impacting the story.”
“She and I had different views on conventional medicine,” Krafft said. This included a disagreement over whether or to have a surgery performed, which she later regretted.

After this Heisham had a significant disagreement, leading her to believe she wasn’t being listened to. After multiple recurrences of cancer, she decided that she did not want to go through treatment again.

“I don’t know what I’d do in that situation,” he said.

“I wanted to tell the story of someone who both fought and struggled to face it and be honest about how hard it can be physically and mentally. And convey that the rest of your life is still going on and the problems you had in the past don’t just go away. If you had trouble with your family, cancer is not going to necessarily fix that. It was hard for Rachel to try to work through.”

This included encouraging Heisham to make up with her daughter Alisha that resulted in a visit from her in Pennsylvania.

“It was complicated. I’m glad they got to see each other.”

Krafft’s angle is more personal: his mother was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.”

The film has been released to the public and shown at the West Kortright Film Festival, including winning best picture and best documentary.

The difficult process in creating the film has made Krafft a better filmmaker, he said. It was a story that deserved to “be told to the best of my ability.” Some of the early footage “wasn’t great” but improved significantly toward the end, including the use of the new lens and a drone. This allowed for a better view of the landscape in Montana and Pennsylvania “that was so important to Rachel.”

“One thing that Rachel struggled with is that if she fought hard enough, did enough alternative treatments, she would find a way to beat the cancer. I hope that people who are in that situation know that it’s not their fault if they don’t make it,” Krafft added. It’s important to tell the story of those who do not survive cancer as a reality that “people face that deserves our attention, care, and compassion.”

Rachel’s legacy will live on, Krafft said, through her grandchildren. “She tried to teach them a love of the woods that I think they have learned from her. I hope that this film can be part of her legacy and watch it and be able to think about what it means to face death and to have more empathy for others and be more willing to engage with people who are different from them.”
“When I met Rachel we randomly went on a hike together from a Facebook hiking group.” He hadn’t planned to make a film originally but was “struck by how strong a will to live she had.”

When Krafft had met Heisham, she had a prognosis of two months to live. She ultimately lived for another two years, including “incredible adventures” in Montana, even when in pain.

“She was determined to survive and have as much fun as she could as long as she could.”

Krafft plans to use his experience to create another documentary about his father’s farmhouse in Pennsylvania “Grampy’s Red Rock Rabbit Ranch.”

Watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyBSwUhVRHM. Read more about the film here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33034078/?ref_=ra_sb_ln.