The Closer We Get
Synopsis
Karen’s mother Ann suffers a devastating stroke that brings her daughter back home. But Karen isn’t the only one who comes back to help care for Ann in the crisis: Her prodigal father - the endearing yet unfathomable Ian, who’s been separated from Ann for years - also reappears.
Reunited so unexpectedly, and armed with her camera, Karen seizes this last chance to go under the skin of the family story before it’s too late, to come to terms with the aftermath of the secret her father had tried - and failed - to keep from them all: a relationship and a son, Campbell, born in Ethiopia and now in Scotland.
With candour, warmth and much unexpected humour, Karen’s role as family confidante, busybody, therapist and spy brings to life both an extraordinary story and a profound portrait of family survival.
Hot Docs 2015 - World premiere
Details
- Year
- 2015
- Type of project
- Features
- Running time
- 87 mins
- Director
-
Karen Guthrie
- Producer
- Karen Guthrie, Nina Pope
- Editor
- Alice Powell
- Screenwriter
- Karen Guthrie
- Director of Photography
- Nina Pope
- Sound
- Doug Haywood
- Composer
- Malcolm Middleton
- Principal cast
- Ann Guthrie, Ian Guthrie, Karen Guthrie
- Sound Design
- Doug Haywood
Categories
Production Status
Production Company
Somewhere
J Goodings Pie & Mash257 Well Street
London
E9 6RG
Sales Company
Somewhere
J Goodings Pie & Mash257 Well Street
London
E9 6RG
Page updates
This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.
See also
You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.
Folk to Folk
Director: Saoirse Crean
Year: 2026
Led by renowned vocal coach Jennifer John, Folk to Folk follows a group of women in Liverpool who use traditional folk songs to build unexpected connections across cultures. As they learn and sing in Gaelic, Romansh, Boro and other languages, the sessions uncover shared themes that unite us. The songs rise like ghosts from the past, stirring memories, laughter and tears, and opening a safe space for the women to reflect together. “This project proves that music is a universal language. It allows us to feel, to be emotional, and when we do that together… that’s where the power lies” - Jennifer John
The Local
Director: Kim Hopkins
Year:
In an inner-city pub in Northern England, the lives of its regulars unfold through politics, love, loss and song, as a community holds on with quiet dignity in a world growing more divided and uncertain.
Lost Souls Swimming in A Fish Bowl
Director: Aneek Chaudhuri
Year: 2026
Lost Souls, Swimming in a Fish Bowl is a silent documentary about the invisible territories of depression, isolation, memory, and the fragile act of continuing to live. There are people who move through the world every day while feeling as though they exist behind glass. They work, walk, eat, sleep, smile, and disappear into crowds—yet remain suspended within an interior world that no one else can enter. The film observes these fractured states without explanation, diagnosis, or spoken testimony. Instead, silence becomes the language of the film. Through faces, bodies, empty rooms, urban landscapes, found footage, archival fragments, photographs, gestures, objects, and moments of stillness, Lost Souls, Swimming in a Fish Bowl enters the psychological geography of people who feel trapped inside themselves. The fish bowl becomes both metaphor and physical space: transparent enough to see the world outside, yet impossible to escape.