INTERVIEW: “This Is To Help People” - The Inspiring Story Behind New Documentary The Mountain Within Me

"Our subconscious draws us to stories that we need to evolve," director Polly Steele shares with me when we sit down to discuss her latest documentary, The Mountain Within Me , a 90-minute tale of overcoming adversity and the power of community through the lens of one man.

That man is Ed Jackson, a former Rugby Union player who – following an accident in 2017 that left him quadriplegic in the ICU – overcame the odds.

The Mountain Within Me documents Ed's journey to recovery, now dealing with Brown-Sequard Syndrome, a rare neurological condition that results in weakness or paralysis on one side of the body and a loss of sensation on the opposite side.

Despite not knowing if he would ever walk again following his accident, Jackson now spends his time scaling some of the world's most daunting peaks, building a community through his aptly named charity, Millimetres to Mountains.

Before his story came to the big screen, Jackson tells me he "had about 200,000 words worth of blog and diary entries when [he] got approached by Harper Collins to turn it into a book".

"I was like 'No, sorry. I can't do that. I'm not an author'," Jackson says.

It took some convincing from Bev James – "a very clever literary agent" is how he describes her – who told him that "this is to help people".

With that in mind, Jackson took pen to paper and carved out the 272-page Lucky , which was released in 2021 and became a Sunday Times bestseller.

"I realized through the blog, and through opening up about certain things, that it was really rewarding for me," Jackson says. "It was really helping me – especially talking about those sensitive subjects – so it gets ingrained in you that being open and vulnerable is helpful."

This intrinsic need to help others seems to be the common thread tying Steele to Jackson.

"When stories do come to me, I get so embroiled in them," Steele shares with me. "They have unveiled themselves to you, and it's sort of your purpose in life to help them get to the screen."

Jackson's story came to her three and a half years ago through Emmy-nominated producer George Chignell.

"[George] said she came to me because I'm a sensitive filmmaker, and I can get below the skin," Steele says, which is a trait that becomes evident to me just from spending twenty minutes in her company.

The BAFTA nominee also trained life coach, and Jackson tells me that Steele shows "a real appreciation for how vulnerable someone could be in tough times and trauma."

I ask Jackson how the project came by him, to which he shares that he "got a call from a lady called Helen Parker," the EVP of acquisition at Universal Pictures, who had read Jackson's book.

"I remember not believing who she was," Jackson jokes. "You want to make a film? About what?"

"A few months later, Polly and George came down to see me and Lois in Bath," says Jackson. The producer/director duo spent two days with Jackson and his wife, Lois, seeing whether this was the right team to bring such an important and profoundly human story to a global audience.

When I ask Steele how she approached that first meeting, she says, "I'm very honest. I say, 'This is who I am, and this is what I do. If that feels good for you, then we're a good fit.' Luckily, we were a good fit."

Jackson agrees. "We clicked with them straight away," he says. "[Polly] shared the same vision for the film. It couldn't just be entertainment. A hero's journey piece. There had to be some value in it and take away for the viewer," and when Jackson saw that wasn't in the plan for Steele, he "implicitly trusted her."

Beginning the process, Steele says she had "a very sort of superficial structural idea of what might work."

However, as is true of life and art, "You can pretend you know what's going to happen. But the honest answer with documentaries is that you don't."

As Steele spent more time around Ed and the community he and Lois had built through Millimetres to Mountains, she noticed the meaningful way Jackson had turned tragedy into a connection point for those like him who have dealt with similar injury or trauma.

"The thing I admire about them is that they've created a very strong, real community," Steele says. "They really put the hours into [Millimetres to Mountains], and each one of those people has really benefited and grown and surpassed a trauma that they were dealing with."

"We really wanted it to focus on the charity," Jackson says. "This had to reach a broader audience."

I wonder if Jackson was nervous about bringing those who have trusted him with their stories into this project, to which he tells me, "I knew that [Polly] was never gonna put any unnecessary pressure on anyone. So, she would err on the side of caution. But we had some amazing beneficiaries who were willing to open up and tell their stories. I think it's a powerful part of the film."

One poignant moment in the film is when Ed is on one of these expeditions with a beneficiary of the charity, Ben, and they reach a point – at separate moments – where they have to return, leaving this particular hike incomplete.

It's a moment of great openness on Ed and Ben's part, and I ask Steele how it feels to capture someone at their most vulnerable and how she felt leaving these moments in for audiences to see.

"I don't think stories can be told without those moments," she says. "Unless you have the down, how can you have the up? It is actually the tension between those two that makes us storytellers."

Steele continues, "I think it's so important for young men to see young men being vulnerable. There are many feeling like they don't know which way to turn, and having someone like Ed be vulnerable on screen is so important. It's normal. How can you go through a trauma and not be vulnerable? Or how can you go through life and not be vulnerable? It was super important that those moments were left in – not too many – just a few so that we can connect with them and realize we're all the same."

As much as it's a story about overcoming adversity, The Mountain Within Me is about the healing that takes place within that.

"If you're helping people, you are genuinely helping yourself," Steele says. "It is a two-way process to heal. You don't have to wait till you're better to be able to help somebody else."

Jackson mirrors Steele's words, saying, "I don't feel necessarily like this is what I was born to do you know, as such," but through planting the seed of connection through his blog, he has found a "sense of purpose through helping others. It's incredibly powerful. It helps you, too."

With the film set to premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, I ask Jackson how he compares scaling a mountain to finding himself about to have his story screened for thousands of people.

"They're very different," he says. "There's moments in the middle of the climbs where, you know, it is incredibly challenging, but actually, I suppose this is slightly more alien to me."

Jackson's slightly more used to being in front of the camera through working with Channel 4 and is set to present the athletics with them at this year's Paralympics.

"Nothing that I do now, whether it's climbing mountains or doing interviews or having documentaries made was ever in the plan," Jackson says. "I would never have considered I'd be able to do any of it or even it, or it would ever happen."

That is the main message at the heart of The Mountain Within Me . Jackson says, "It used to make me nervous not knowing what was happening in one, five, or ten years' time. Now I'm kind of excited by that."

When I ask Jackson what he hopes people will take from his story, he says, "Don't let the limitations that society might put on you or you put on yourself stop you from trying things."

Beyond that, Jackson hopes it'll open a dialogue about the film's sensitive topics, which he lists as "relationships, sexual function, temperature, bladder, bowel issues, things that really affect so many people. But no one talks about it."

He also hopes that it spreads the message, "Be kind.”

"[Helping others has] been a big part of my healing process. I was helped a lot by others, and being able to pay that forward is a privilege and still part of my healing journey."

Earlier in our conversation, Steele reflects on her own journey through life, telling me, "I look back at the history of my filmmaking and see I just make these ridiculous commitments because I feel faithful to the people who have entrusted me with their stories, and you feel like you are carrying them for them."

That kindred spirit between Steele and Jackson's missions makes for an incredibly moving film which is available to rent and own from August 20.