Salt in My Soul
Directed by Will Battersby | Reviewed by Loren Talbot
In the end-of-life spaces we inhabit, most often we are there to support the dying. The film Salt in My Soul—which traces the life of Mallory Smith, who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at the age of 3, shows us how to support the living. Many films document what life looks like when faced with insurmountable challenges, but few show the immense support and devotion of family and loved ones while simultaneously being deeply inspired by the person being supported. This documentary film directed by Will Battersby is based upon Mallory’s posthumously published diaries of the same name.
At the age of 9, Mallory began to secretly document her life in her diary. The film incorporates these 2,500 pages of journal entries, along with film footage and audio recordings that were discovered after her death. Mallory said of her own writing, “Many of the feelings I write about are too difficult to share while I’m alive, so I’m keeping everything in my journal password-protected until the end.”
Throughout the film, Mallory’s brilliance and vibrant personality dominates the story while capturing her grit and determination at a young age. While her illness is present throughout the film her goals, her drive, and her love take center stage.
Her parents’ devotion and support are documented throughout. From her father’s search for treatment options; her mother’s daily support for her daughter, educating the public, and fundraising in the community; to her brother’s care; this film is a story of family will and support. Her mother, Diane, is no stranger to the CF community: She wrote the book Mallory’s 65 Roses in 1997. In the book, she refers to the inhaled medications Mallory was prescribed as “Astronaut,” and to chest percussion therapy—a common treatment for people with CF—as “the Pat Pat machine.” With this film, viewers see chest percussion therapy from Mallory’s point of view, allowing a glimpse into a child’s mind as she discusses how the treatments make her feel.
Director Will Battersby beautifully weaves the stories that Mallory left with footage of her as an active athlete in high school to her acceptance and enrollment at Stanford University. A fierce advocate for the environment, Mallory produced radio documentaries for Green Grid Radio as well as short news features for NPR at its Santa Monica affiliate, KCRW, and a documentary film, Silver Bullet. She also played college club volleyball, defying all preconceived assumptions about someone living with cystic fibrosis. We see her fall in love and that love reciprocated. Mallory and her friends launched the social media campaign Lunges4Lungs and with her parents raised over $5.5 million for CF research.
The hunt for a treatment that would help Mallory led to her being the first CF recipient to use phages—viruses that fight bacterial infections—for bacteria that were resistant to the antibiotics she was receiving. While this revolutionary treatment started working on Mallory, she died two months after her lung transplant. The beginning successes of Mallory’s treatment and the money raised has led to additional research trials on phages that may affect many patient outcomes.
Mallory is the author of two books, The Gottlieb Native Garden: A California Love Story, and her posthumous memoir, Salt in My Soul: An Unfinished Life. In the film’s press release, Diane shared, “In the last year of her life, when she was facing a double lung transplant, Mallory gave me the password but asked me not to read it unless she died. In an instant, my obsessive interest in reading her raw material dissipated.” But the words that she recorded, her father’s hunt for a better treatment, her mother’s successful fundraising and drive to inform, and the support of her family, friends, and loved ones all show us how Mallory’s will to live a full life with a terminal illness led to extraordinary things.