After a bowel cancer diagnosis and life changing surgery, documentary filmmaker Damian Sciberras sets out to better understand what it's really like to live with a stoma.

A Bag For Life is a documentary short that opens up the rarely seen reality of this experience. Drawing from his own journey and other people living with a stoma, the film follows a handful of intimate stories that reveal the courage, uncertainty and quiet perseverance behind this hidden difference.

Told in the same observational and character led style as Damian’s award-winning short More Like Paul, the film moves between personal moments of reflection and the everyday experiences that shape who we become after life changes in unexpected ways. The documentary looks at identity, resilience and the ways we rebuild ourselves as we adapt to a new way of life.

At its heart, A Bag For Life is a film about understanding. By opening up these stories, the hope is to soften stigma, encourage compassion and remind people that every life altered by illness or surgery still holds a depth and strength that deserves to be seen.

The film is currently in production with a planned release for World Stoma Day 2027.

I am Damian Sciberras, a UK based documentary filmmaker drawn to real stories that challenge perceptions and encourage a deeper understanding of the world around us. My filmmaking journey began while working as a videographer, where I quickly realised how powerful storytelling can be when it gives space to lived experience.

My first short documentary, Saved by Jane (2022), grew from time spent volunteering at Starfield Farm Animal Sanctuary. The film follows Jane Baker’s work rescuing and rehoming more than one hundred and fifty farm animals. It went on to screen at nine festivals and received six awards, including Best Short Documentary and the Green Planet Award. This early success shaped my interest in resilience, ethical living and human connection.

My second film, Held by the Water  (2023), co-directed with Will Reddaway, follows wild swimmer Fiona Holden as she embraces cold water swimming for both physical and mental well being. The project reinforced my commitment to character led stories that reveal strength in unexpected places.

My latest documentary, More Like Paul (2025), follows eighty eight year old ultramarathoner Paul Youd as he attempts to complete one hundred ultramarathons before his hundredth birthday, fuelled by a plant-powered lifestyle. So far the film has been selected for six festivals and has won four awards including Best Documentary Short at BIFF 2025. With strong support on social media, the trailer reached more than half a million viewers and is set for release on the WaterBear Network in 2026.

I am now developing new documentary projects, including A Bag For Life, which explores what it is really like to live with a stoma through a mix of personal reflection and intimate character stories. This work continues my interest in underrepresented experiences and my belief that honest, compassionate storytelling can help shift understanding and inspire meaningful change.

After receiving a permanent stoma following cancer treatment in 2020, I found myself living with something that profoundly changed my everyday life. Yet despite this being a growing reality for many, I had never knowingly met anyone else with a stoma. That absence lasted five years until I embarked on the making of A Bag for Life. This pointed not to rarity, but to stigma.

This film exists to help soften that stigma and increase visibility. Not through explanation or instruction, but through presence. Through people being seen as they are, speaking honestly and existing on their own terms.

While I am present in the film, my role is to step back and centre others. The heart of A Bag for Life lies in the courage and vulnerability of the people who choose to share their experiences. Some stories are quiet, some complex, some deeply emotional. All are valid. The aim is not to invite pity, but to create understanding and connection.

There has never been a film dedicated to what it is like to live with a stoma. Film, as a medium, allows space for emotion, silence, intimacy and humanity in a way no other format can. It allows us not just to hear stories, but to feel them. To sit with people, expressions and moments that are rarely given time or attention.

A Bag for Life is part of finding purpose within adversity. A way of expressing creativity while contributing something meaningful to others. My hope is that this film becomes one that can be recommended. Passed on quietly. Offered to someone at the beginning of their own journey as a reminder that they are not alone, that we find ways of adapting, and that endurance and determination can take many forms.

At its core, A Bag for Life is about resilience. It is about making space for stories that deserve to be seen.