Social & External
Self
A documentary about the men who devote their lives to digging the graves and tending the plots of Holy Cross Cemetery. A unique behind the scenes look at the work and the art of grave digging.
This story follows the history of the most over buried commercial cemetery in America. It comes full circle to present day and documents a non profit's efforts to take care of the abandoned and abused burial ground.
Archaeologists, preservationists and everyday people are mapping and cataloging cemeteries in Arkansas. They are piecing together the fragments of broken and damaged markers and memorials and in the process are uncovering more information than they thought they would find.
'if you only had one year left of your life, what would you do?' This question asks Swiss author Franz Hohler. His answer: 'Make death your adviser to live life to the fullest.' He is one of several carefully chosen Swiss citizens who give us an insight into their personal views on life and death. Besides these colorful, oftentimes funny quotes we meet Tom, a 50-year old male that has been diagnosed with incurable brain tumor. Contrary to what one would expect, Tom takes his sickness not as a burden but as a chance and lives his life happier than ever before. This to the surprise of his family and friends and above all - himself. The film encourages people to live life more consciously.
Mondo-style docudrama about a war correspondent who comes back home and has a spiritual crisis about his own mortality. Surreal fantasy sequences are mixed with graphic real autopsy footage.
21 Days, based on the story of six young fishermen who left Gros-Islet fishing village on a routine fishing expedition and simply vanished. The young men disappeared on February 15, 1985, after they set out on a fishing expedition.
My mother will die. Jutta interprets the diagnosis of an incurable cancer as a spiritual crisis. Accompanied by Rainer Langhans, to whom she has a deep friendship since over 40 years, Jutta travels to India and goes on the search for a healing experience from within.
As the muse of Hal Hartley’s indie classics and as writer/director of the critically acclaimed Waitress, Adrienne Shelly was a shining star in the indie film firmament. A devoted young mother, her life was right on track until her husband found her dead. Filmmaker Andy Ostroy has been fighting to discover the truth about his wife’s death ever since.
In 2011, the director and screenwriter Wolf Gremm receives the diagnosis - prostate cancer. According to the doctors, he has not much longer to live, maybe eight months. Wolf Gremm is torn by these devastating news in the midst of an active, fulfilling life, but he decides to deal with the disease offensively and to fight. From now on smartphone and mini camera are his constant companions.
Since 2007, dozens of young people have been found hanged in Bridgend, a town in southern Wales. Many of them knew one another-they were friends, neighbors, and family. The striking similarities between their deaths have confounded authorities and struck fear into the hearts of parents. Headlines splashed across the UK earned Bridgend its infamous nickname: ""Death Town."
In August 1997, the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales, stunned her family and catapulted the British public into one of the most extraordinary weeks in modern history. What was it about Diana that resulted in such an outpouring of grief? And what does that week reveal about Britain's relationship with the monarchy, then and now?
Parallel stories connected through an intimacy with death. The living and the dead communicate through visions, memories and reality.
I meet Herbert in the same week I get diagnosed with cancer. We fall madly in love and plan to stay together for the rest of our lives. Three months later, he is dead. Herbert was a BASE Jumper. Leaping off a cliff with nothing but a parachute, he loses his balance, slams into the rock face and falls to his death. His loss in the midst of my chemotherapy completely throws me. Why does he gamble his life away, while I fight for mine? Desperate for answers, I return to Lauterbrunnen, the scene of the accident where Andreas, his best friend and coach, introduces me to the world of BASE. The jumpers teach me not only about the sport, but about facing fears, harnessing and controlling them. To make the most of the life we get. In the Swiss Death Valley I slowly find my way back to life.
An exclusive interview with Death as he goes about his everyday business.
My Flesh and Blood is a 2003 documentary film by Jonathan Karsh chronicling a year in the life of the Tom family. The Tom family is notable as the mother, Susan, adopted eleven children, most of whom had serious disabilities or diseases. The film itself is notable for handling the sensitive subject matter in an unsentimental way that is more uplifting than one might expect.
The Death of 'Superman Lives': What Happened? feature film documents the process of development of the ill fated "Superman Lives" movie, that was to be directed by Tim Burton and star Nicolas Cage as the man of steel himself, Superman. The project went through years of development before the plug was pulled, and this documentary interviews the major filmmakers: Kevin Smith, Tim Burton, Jon Peters, Dan Gilroy, Colleen Atwood, Lorenzo di Bonaventura and many many more.
A big hearted community celebrates life by fronting up to death. Set against the stunning backdrop of the industrial seaside town of Port Kembla, a feisty and resilient community group have determined to take back the responsibility that most of us leave to someone else — to care for their own dead. Scattered throughout are stories that cut to the core revealing why this small band have decided to take on a practice that for most is taboo. As their plans for community-based funerals gather momentum one of their own is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. Tender is at once a heartbreakingly beautiful and beautifully funny glimpse of an extraordinary community taking on one of the most essential challenges of human life … its end.
The film examines the death of the anarchist Giuseppe Pinelli, who fell from the fourth floor of the police headquarters in Milan December 15, 1969, after being stopped following the Piazza Fontana bombing.
The story of Hitler’s final hours told by people who were there. This special features exclusive forgotten interviews, believed lost for 65 years, with members of Hitler’s inner circle who were trapped with him in his bunker as the Russians fought to take Berlin. These unique interviews from figures such as the leader of the Hitler Youth Artur Axmann and Hitler’s secretary Traudl Junge, have never before been seen outside Germany. Using rarely seen archive footage and dramatic reconstruction, this special tells the story of Adolf Hitler’s final days in his Berlin bunker.
In the depths of a Maine winter, an end-of-life doula prepares her clients for death while grappling with her own uncertainties about loss and mourning.
