Bristol teacher decides on a change of scene

After 20 years teaching English and drama at schools across Bristol, Jacki Hill-Murphy felt she needed a change.

This would be the point where most people would book a holiday. But not Jacki. She packed in her job, and booked a flight to the Amazon.

She felt it was time for a complete change of lifestyle, and she wanted to try her hand as film-maker

"I'd done some film-making as part of the master's degree from the University of Sussex years before, but I'd never tried to do it professionally," said Jacki, of Portishead.

"But I thought, I couldn't really go wrong, so I bought a good camera and started planning my trip.

"When I was studying for the degree I made a short film about a woman called Isabel Godin who, in 1769, became the first woman to travel the length of the Amazon.

"Isabel's amazing story had stuck with me for years since my student days, so when I wanted to try film-making again, my mind immediately went back to her story. I decided that I'd go out to South America and retrace her steps.

"I spoke to a number of television production companies to see if they would commission a film about Isabel, but they said they would only be interested if I had somebody famous to front it. It was terribly frustrating, so in the end I thought I'd just go out there and make the film anyway for my own pleasure."

In 1749 Isabel's husband Jean left their home in Riobamba, Ecuador, to visit French Guiana, but as a French citizen was refused permission by the Spanish and Portuguese authorities to return to his family.

Isabel became famous for being the only survivor of a 42-person 3,000-mile expedition through the Amazon Basin to meet up with her husband. They were reunited in 1770 and later returned to France together.

"She was an incredible woman," Jacki said. "Eventually the Portuguese sent a ship to take Jean back to his family, but he was suspicious of the crew and refused to board. The ship nevertheless carried on up the river to find Isabel to bring her to Jean."

For most of their 20-year separation Isabel received no news of her husband, while enduring the death of her children from smallpox. When she heard rumours that a ship was waiting to take her down the Amazon she sent her servant, Joachim, and a handful of Indians to investigate. The party returned after two years having discovered the waiting ship, four years after its initial departure.

On October 1, 1769, she joined the 42-person party set out for the ship.

The route across the Andes and Amazon Basin was an arduous one, made worse by the recent devastation by smallpox of the mission station at Canelos, depriving the party of valuable support nine days into their journey.

"When they reached the river, the canoes were not there for them as planned, so they were trapped." Jacki said.

"It was quite moving when I reached the point on the river where she failed to meet her canoes, and I found my canoes there. I could imagine how devastating it must have been to be stranded there."

Eventually Isabel found two local tribal people who agreed to repair a 40ft canoe, in which they continued down the Amazon.

The river journey proved just as difficult, with the canoe unmanageable, the Indians deserting them, and one of the party drowning en route.

With the canoe weighed down by supplies, the party set up camp and sent Joachim and one of the Frenchmen ahead in the canoe, so they could return with extra transport.

Waiting for Joachim to return, the others began to suffer from infected insect bites. They died one by one, until Isabel was completely alone.

"With the others dead, Isabel was left wandering in the jungle," Jacki said.

"She wandered alone and starving for nine days, before she stumbled into an Indian camp. They brought her back from the brink of death and were eventually able to lead her to the waiting ship.

"From there she was taken down river and finally reunited with her husband."

Jacki's journey took her through part of Isabel's ordeal – following the 300 mile route between Cajabamba in Ecuador over the border into Peru.

"It was an amazing experience to see these remote sections of the Amazon, and meet the indigenous people," she said. "I think it made an interesting film and, although it's clearly the work of a beginner, I am hoping to get it shown at the Bristol Encounters Short Film Festival later in the year."

Jacki is also developing her new business – producing wedding videos to pay the bills, while also planning another daring adventure.

"I'm heading off in June with a group of six women on an expedition to climb Mount Cameroon," she said.

"I decided to develop the theme of adventurous women from history, by looking at the story of Mary Kingsley, who became the first woman to climb the African mountain in 1895. I advertised in the Royal Geographical Society magazine for women who might like to join me on the expedition and we are going to attempt to climb the mountain dressed in the same sort of Victorian clothes that Mary Kingsley would have worn."

If Jacki and her fellow climbers make it up the 14,435ft (4,095m) mountain, she hopes it will be a springboard for her new film-making career.

Jacki is also hoping to inspire a generation of new Bristol documentary film makers by holding a series of summer school filming workshops at the Tobacco Factory in August.

"I want to show young people that you can follow your dream of becoming a film maker," she says.

"I've totally changed my life around in the past few years, and it's been a fantastic experience."