Really delighted – especially on International Women’s Day – to let everyone know that RACHEL is joining the slate of Concord Media, a major UK distributor of audio-visual media in social and moral issues, specialising in the sale and hire of educational titles useful for training and counselling.

Concord is an ethically run company with charitable status and founded upon the principles of Quakerism. To have Rachel meet the required standards for distribution is an achievement my whole team, and all those who supported the making of the film, can be really proud of.

When I think back to the launch of the film, back in 2016, I always recall the moment when I was stood in the bar after the screening – surrounded by my wonderful cast, crew and Kickstarter supporters – and I suddenly realised that the team from Leverton & Sons Funeral Directors weren’t there knocking back the wine with us.

At first I was upset – I was worried that, having been such gracious hosts of two days filming in their premises, they might not have liked the film and left right after it finished. But then I was told that, in actual fact, they were all still sitting in the cinema discussing the film, its impact, its meaningfulness, its exploration of situations that they experienced regularly in their working lives and the idea that it could be used to help educate people training and working in fields specialising in death, bereavement and counselling services.

I was so moved by this – it was everything I had wanted to achieve when I set out to make the film and yet a surprise, nonetheless, that anyone else felt the way I did about it.

As much of the inspiration for Rachel was born out of my many personal experiences of love and loss, it was a difficult script to write and to film. Quite often I was deeply depressed during the process but overall is was a cathartic and healing journey that gave me an opportunity to express so much that had been locked inside my heart for so long.

Rachel’s festival run was wonderful – the film won awards and it found appreciative audiences everywhere it went. I know from feedback – whether it be from hearing it in person from a tearful friend after a screening or receiving a letter from a stranger – that watching the film can give others that same opportunity to examine and process their own feelings of grief. So, this new journey is one that will mean our film can continue finding new audiences, inspiring useful conversations and perhaps even help to heal broken relationships.

It has taken a while to get here but to know that the next stage of our film’s life will be yet more meaningful than what has gone before, is very satisfying indeed.

It goes without saying, but I will say it anyway – this is something I couldn’t have achieved without the amazing cast, crew, friends, family, locations and Kickstarter supporters who helped me make Rachel the beautiful, moving and enduringly relevant and important film it is.

Thank you and much love to you all. And thank you also to the kind and thoughtful people at Concord, who have made a personal dream of mine come true. Karen x