I'm thrilled and proud to share that the film about my coast to coast paddleboarding adventure in the summer of 2019 has inched one step closer to release and now has a poster!
Credit: Frit Sarita Tam
The featurette - 57 mins long - is called Brave Enough - A Journey Home to Joy and follows my 162 mile long journey from Liverpool to Goole along the Leeds Liverpool Canal and Aire & Calder Navigation. I was also picking up litter and raising money for the surf therapy charity The Wave Project and 2MinuteBeachClean Foundation.
From Crying in Supermarkets to Being the 1st Woman to SUP Coast to Coast :
The film chronicles a very low point in my life in 2013 when I found myself quite literally sobbing in the biscuit aisle of Tesco's supermarket in Skipton, overwhelmed, anxious and desperate for a good night's sleep. I was a busy single Mum, both my parents were going through chemotherapy and, without realising it, I was experiencing symptoms of the perimenopause. Staring at the chocolate Hob Nobs in tears I wondered how my life had come to this.
Brave Enough is a story of how, step by step, day by day, I rediscovered myself, my purpose and happiness again.
My hope is that by sharing the challenges of my story it will help other women rediscover their joy, put their dreams, however big or small, on the priority list and realise that they are brave enough to realise them. One tiny step at a time.
Because you are never too old to dream a new dream and it is never too late to make a difference.
A Chance Meeting and a Labour of Love:
Brave Enough is a partnership between myself and Frit Sarita Tam of Passion Fruit Pictures and is both a creative labour of love and reflects a friendship across the generations from a chance meeting in autumn 2018. Frit was the photographer for the Women's Adventure Expo and asked if she could take my photograph.
Frit and I at Women's Adventure Expo in 2018 - our first meeting!
We swapped numbers and met later that year at Kendal Mountain Film Festival where I was fortunate enough to be a speaker with my friends from FINDRA Clothing on the joy of tiny adventures in midlife. Over a cup of tea, Frit and I chatted about work, women in adventure and our dreams for the future.
FINDRA friends with founder Alex Feechan
A Leap of Faith:
When I revealed in February 2019 that I was planning to paddle the coast to coast trail, Frit took a huge leap of faith and asked if she could join me. I imagined she would be there for possibly 2 of the 11 days of the trip. She ultimately stayed for 8 days and our friendship was formed.
She saw (& filmed!) me at my lowest and happiest, asking questions I didn't always want to answer and sharing both the pain and joy of the journey. Brave Enough also documents the stunning beauty of the Leeds Liverpool Canal and Aire & Calder Navigation, the wonderful people we met along the way as well as the impact of plastic pollution.
Brave Enough - A Journey Home to Joy
What can we tell you about the film?
It's about motherhood - my love for my Mum who died of Lymphoma on 21st December 2013 and for my boys and my hope that one day I might make them as proud of me as I am of them.
It's about grief and loss, (miscarriage, divorce, menopause and bereavement) and finding our way back to joy, purpose and belonging.
It's about discovering the extraordinary in the ordinary, cherishing the smallest of joys and the magic of adventures on our doorstep.
It's about finding purpose in midlife and living by the idea "I can't change the world, but I can change the little bit around me" with beach cleaning and fundraising.
It's about rediscovering movement and exercise in midlife and realising that it doesn't have to be about losing weight or competition but simply 'for the joy it brings.'
It's about knowing that you are never too old to start a new dream and it's never too late to make a difference.
Photo credit Charlotte Graham
At its heart, Brave Enough is about sharing a story of a very very ordinary woman who had a dream that others dismissed as being too difficult for someone like her and a woman of her age and making her dream come true anyway. (I was only 54 when I completed it.)
Not because she suddenly became super courageous (I'm not) but being Brave Enough to hold her breath and trust herself to take one tiny step and then another, and then just one more.
Photo Credit Frit Sarita Tam
Online Festivals:
Frit and I look forward to sending Brave Enough into the world in the coming weeks. With Covid restrictions in place in the UK and our dream of pop up festivals on hold, we will be creating some gorgeous screenings online with a Q & A, raffle and prizes within the ticket price in February and March. We look forward to sharing all the details with you!
UPDATE: Tickets to join us for the premiere and Q and A on 25 February 1900 UK Time sold out within a week!
You can buy tickets for the 3 March screening and Q and A here:
We look forward to seeing you there!
Brave Enough - A Journey Home to Joy - from our hearts to yours. Jo x
Photos copyrighted to Jo Moseley and Frit Sarita Tam and Charlotte Graham
Frit and Jo on an adventure in friendship + filmmaking. Also pictured Frankie Dewar.