Filming Death: End-Of-Life Documentary Cinema

End-of-life documentaries have proliferated in the 21^st century as various organisations, institutions, journalists, independent filmmakers, and members of the public have wanted to give death and dying a face in the public discussion.

Each documentary film that concerns individuals with a terminal illness, in hospice care, or desiring assisted death, redefines cultural expectations of what dying is and feels like. These films invite their viewers to witness intimate and emotional moments of dying people, including moments on their deathbed. Filming Death explores these documentaries as ethical spaces, asking the viewers to learn how to engage with end-of-life through the experiences of others and to find ways to alleviate potential death anxiety.

The book argues that the diversity of documentary films resists simplified moral divisions between good and bad death, and instead, embellishes diverse realities where dying takes many forms, ranging from death acceptance to raging to death.

Outi Hakola is a Lecturer in the Department of Health and Social Management at the University of Eastern Finland.