Max Stainton-Parfitt has quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy. He is also the first physically disabled man to trek to Everest Base Camp. His story is told in the new documentary film, My Everest, which is in cinemas from 27 April. He talked to UP CEO, Emma Livingstone, about the film, the challenge and how he feels about it now.
Emma:
I loved the kind of things that you are trying to say with the film, because it supports a lot of the conversations that we are having with the community at the moment in terms of representation, and what we challenge ourselves to do – not wanting to be inspiration porn just for living our everyday life.
Max:
Navigating that line for us for making the film was an interesting one. I don’t think I set out to do inspiration porn when I did it. But I did set out with an idea of changing society’s expectations and breaking stereotypes – kind of on the more inspiration porn end.
One very personal motivation I had was around the corporate world, not wanting to be pigeon-holed: just being seen as that disabled guy in the corner. And I really felt I needed to have some sort of physical accomplishment under my belt to break that mould.
I basically just had mad imposter syndrome. In my youth, I had an identity of rebelling against society’s expectations, be that not learning how to feed myself with a knife and fork, or not learning how to dress myself. My thinking was: I have quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy – I can spend inordinate amounts of time learning to try and do this, or I can try and get good grades in my GCSEs. And I think I was right.
Emma:
I have to tell you that even though you didn’t intend to be my inspiration porn, working with my physios and trainers to get back onto my feet showed me and shows us and shows lots of people that with intervention, with support and with having a goal it is possible. Whereas we’ve lived a life where people have told us things aren’t possible. And I think that’s what the film also shows.
Max:
You do feel like an imposter, as in there’s a very real physical delineation between you and everyone else, and that isn’t going go away. I think that very much drove me to do that mad outlandish thing.
Emma:
And how did you feel once you’d accomplished it?
Max:
It was an incredible feeling for me personally. It was an incredible feeling for us collectively. We brought a team of 10 people out from the UK to do this with me. And then we had the whole team of Sherpas around us supporting all of us to do it. Plus a team of three or four Sherpa guys specifically for me. It just felt like, ‘wow, we’ve done this’. We’ve all collectively done this incredible feat that 100% wouldn’t have been achievable without that team effort.
Emma:
Did that equalise things somewhat, in terms of the Sherpas were there to help everybody, and everybody had their own physical challenges?
Max:
The mountain was a great equaliser. There were some days where I was the one struggling the most. There were also quite a few days towards the end, where actually the path is quite flat, where I was not struggling the most, I was far ahead of everyone else just sitting comfortably riding a horse, which is the thing I’ve known to do since I was five years old. And everyone else behind me is really struggling to keep up with me.
Emma:
What’s made you turn it into a film and what do you hope to achieve?
Max:
What’s really interesting about the film is it follows my journey of re-evaluation, of my motivations for why I did it.
I come out of it being asked, ‘oh, what are you going do next’? I’m not some weird guy who just does these things for your entertainment. I actually have a more complex and varied life than just doing this. Bringing all that together, really starting to question why I’d done it and question the whole idea of it.
And what we do is we bring the audience on that journey because, it’s this totally self-funded independent film. It’s taken us four years to make. And so Carl, the director, actually follows me on that journey. He follows me on that journey of me saying, ‘no, society, I’m not just going be your weird Trek Guy’.
I’m actually going to start a family and get married. He follows me on that journey of questioning why I felt that society pushed me to do that. And we bring the audience on that journey with us. We don’t mean for it to feel like a bait and switch, but we do want people to come out of it with a different way of thinking about society and disability than when they came into it.
Emma:
Do you think that somebody living with cerebral palsy themselves who watches your film will take something different away from it?
Max:
My message to them is: do what you want to do. The main lesson I’ve learned is to not define my identity according to society’s expectations. I hope that message can come across to this audience. Because that’s definitely one of my big takeaways from this process.
Emma:
We’ve talked about representation of disabled people. How would you like it to be and how far from that are we?
Max:
The last three places I’ve worked have been pretty big offices, and I’ve been the only guy in a wheelchair. I’ve learned to lean into the feeling of being different, but I don’t think that’s lie a natural feeling for humans to have to wrestle with. So, of course, I don’t want me to be the only guy in a wheelchair in the office. I want to see more people with disabilities in all walks of life.
My Everest is in cinemas 27 April 2023 and a special Q&A screening of My Everest will take place at BFI IMAX on 27 April 2023
Screening information:
https://linktr.ee/myeverestfilm
Watch the trailer: