A Life of One's Own - a Tom Shkolnik film

Aim

Mixing fiction, documentary and dance, A Life of One’s Own brings to life the book by psychoanalyst, artist and writer Marion Milner.

In the summer of 2025, we gathered at the Lichtburg, the legendary rehearsal room of Pina Bausch, to create our feature film of Marion Milner’s, A Life of One’s Own. 

It was almost a full hundred years since the cold December day in 1926, when a 26 year old Marion Milner began her seven year experiment, searching for, “the conditions in which happiness occurred.”

We came to Wuppertal from all over the world, the UK, France, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Mexico, Ireland, Germany and even Japan. Everyone coming out of a fascination with Milner’s ideas. Perhaps, in our own era of relentlessly, “mass produced ideals” we were all searching for a space to listen and observe.  

Our task, in the making of this film, was to capture in images, sounds and movement what Milner articulates in words. What she calls, “a private reality, a reality of feeling rather than of knowing.” The pleasure of a distant piano through an open window, the terror and exaltation of intimacy, the beauty of the ocean at night, the silence of a forest…

For me, it's been a dream come true, the culmination of a twelve year journey into Milner’s work. It is a glorious challenge to adapt this book to film and I’ve been blessed to be surrounded by the most talented and joyous team of actors and filmmakers who threw themselves open-heartedly into the process. 

I hope, that in the spirit of Marion (and Pina!) we’ve made something humble, true, delicate, fierce, and full of everyday beauty. 

A Life of One’s Own is a feature film made completely independently.  

An amazing group of supporters came together to make filming possible, Ben Whishaw, P.J. Harvey, Charlie Covell & Lucy Briggs Own alongside Jonathan Hamburger all contributing privately out of faith in the project.

We’re now looking to raise a further £30,000. 

This amount will enable us to achieve the following things to the highest standards: 

• Color grading - world renowned colourist Isabelle Julien (A Prophet, The Lost Daughter) will colour grade the film. 
• Sound design and Mix - sound designer Ines Adriana (On Falling) will design and mix the final sound. 
• Music Clearances - alongside the original music created by Gwilym Gold, we have a song performed in the film, which we will obtain the rights for. 
• DCP and deliverables - in order to be shown in cinemas and on all platforms, we will need to create several types of unique files.  
• Festival Applications - in order to take the first steps into the world, a film like this will need to have a festival life, requiring application fees.

Our hope is that audiences can enjoy the film as a work of art in its own rights, as well as an introduction to the singular genius of Marion Milner. Her ideas, which are as pertinent and valuable now as they were a hundred years ago, if not more so. 

Alongside an art house release (film festivals followed by cinema release) we’ll offer the film as an educational tool to psychology and art departments all over the world, part of a day long workshop into the work of Marion Milner.

This film is truly a labour of love to Marion Milner and her work. We hope you’ll join us in bringing it to life!

THANK YOU!

Tom & Jeremy 

Thank you for visiting our fundraising campaign. Your involvement really means a lot to us and will help to bring this project to life. If you have any questions about the campaign please drop us a message.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 16th June 2026 at 11:30pm