My Heart Ate Light: a film about Dr Martin Shaw

Aim

A documentary film that follows the extraordinary & unfolding life of Martin Shaw, one of the world’s most revered modern storytellers.

MY HEART ATE LIGHT: SACRED ADVENTURES WITH DR MARTIN SHAW

A film that follows the extraordinary & unfolding life of storyteller Martin Shaw

We travel with him as he traverses the land reminding us of the myths and stories that have in part formed all our lives. We will meet his family, friends and co-conspirators on the journey. We will travel with him to some of the extraordinary encounters and opportunities unfolding around his life and work. 

In an age of profound change, the film explores the resurgence of the mythopoetic in Christian thought, expression and practice.

The film will fuse beautiful imagery and music with fly-on-the-wall documentary, unseen archive and live storytelling.  A pulling-back of the veil on one of the world’s most revered modern storytellers.

A co-creation between award-winning film director Pip Piper and Dr Martin Shaw.

"I'm delighted to be collaborating on My Heart Ate Light. There's a sense of adventure and unfolding, rather than relentless promotion of one polemic or another. We're interested in a kind of a spiritual adventure that arises simply by paying attention to the conditions of your life. With friends and family along the way, we'll be digging into myth, landscape, storytelling and the bumps and glories of the Christian journey." Dr Martin Shaw.

• An experiment in visual expression, thought and spoken word.
• An inner exploration into an external journey.
• As unfinished as it can be. 
• As delightful as possible.

About Dr Martin Shaw

Martin Shaw is a New York Times bestselling author, mythographer and thinker. 

He’s Visiting Scholar at the Divinity Faculty of Cambridge University, and a Fellow of the Temenos Academy. Author of seventeen books, Dr Shaw is the director of the Westcountry School of Myth and founder of the Oral Tradition and Mythic Life courses at Stanford University. Robert Bly described him as “a true master, one of the very greatest storytellers we have.”

His more recent work is what he describes as a developing “Christian mythopoetics”—a reminder of the depth and mysticism latent in this middle-eastern mystery religion. Shaw converted to Eastern Orthodoxy after a 101-day vigil in a Dartmoor forest. He still lives nearby to the wood, writing and teaching.

The Irish Times call Martin “a seanchaí, an interloper from the medieval”, Charles Foster adding, “there’s Shaw and there’s everyone else.”

Find out more about Martin here. 

About the film

A 60-80 minute documentary from the team behind Jo in the Water, a Crowdfunder-supported feature documentary currently screening in UK cinemas.

My Heart Ate Light will be shot by a small, award-winning, creative and ecologically nimble team over the next 12 months with release anticipated late spring /summer 2027.

Funded by the community that love Martin’s work, for the wider world.

The film will have a festival-based World Premiere in the UK.

This will be followed by a short run of Q&A-based cinema screenings across the UK featuring both Martin, director Pip and invited guests.

Our anticipation is that the film will be screened on a UK broadcast channel, followed by a leading digital platform for both UK and international streaming.

To fund the film we are inviting people to come on the journey with us.

Why are we Crowdfunding?

We need to raise £15k to fund the initial development of our film project. 

This will enable us to work with Martin to finish the shooting script, research locations, recruit crew, complete production schedule , shoot some initial elements and start editing plus secure further funding for the feature length documentary.

How you can help

There are two simple ways to get involved and support our project:

1. Make a donation

Every pledge gets us closer to our goal. YOUR support TODAY will help build momentum and inspire others to give too.

2. Help spread the word

Share our project with friends, family and your wider network. The more people we reach, the more likely we are to succeed.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 25th August 2026 at 11:14am