Dying

Description

Dying is a personal, profound and poignant memoir of three people and how they faced their deaths. When it was first broadcast twenty years ago it was universally acclaimed. Unavailable for several years, Filmakers Library is proud to re-release this classic cinema verité documentary. The film focuses on three people with terminal cancer. Sally, a 46-year-old with brain cancer, comes home to her mother s house to die. In a rare study of shared grief, the elderly mother and the dying daughter are connected by the daily tasks of caretaking. The middle story is about Bill, dying in his early 30 s, and his wife, Harriet. Bill is stoic but his wife rages against her fate of being left alone with their two growing children. The third is the story of Reverend Bryant, a thin black preacher whose unassuming manner shows his courage as his life slides to an end. On learning he has no chance of a cure, he preaches a sermon on dying, returns south with his family for one last look around, and at the end, with grandchildren playing at his bedside, dies with dignity. Filmed over a two year period, the film shows how each human being lives and dies as an individual, with deep personal needs and attitudes. It will sensitize health care professionals and counselors to the human factors that mitigate the anguish of both the patients and those who care for them. Also on the same DVD is Cortile Cascino, the award-winning feature-length documentary on Sicily by Michael Roemer and Robert Young.

Runtime

154 min

Creator

Roemer, Michael, 1928

Subjects

Genre

Date of Publication

1998

Database

Alexander Street

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