A Certain Kind of Death

Director: Blue Hadaegh, Grover Babcock
Studio: Winstar
Product Type: DVD

Description

An unblinking and unsettling look at a mysterious process that goes on all around us: what happens to people who die with no next of kin? DVD extras include: Director Commentary, Extra Footage, Interviews.

Customer Reviews:

Die Alone.......2007-06-07

Without music or commentary, this documentary follows the corpses and estates of people who die without inheritors. The process is mechanical, methodical, and bereft of ritual, and the stories behind the deceased depict the depressing, solitary lives of people who truly die alone. A disturbing documentary. Exemplary and poignant.

Enlightening........2006-07-19

A Certain Kind of Death (Grover Babock and Blue Hadaegh, 2003)

What happens to those who die without family to claim them-- transients, homeless, those who live alone without family? Babcock and Hadaegh show us in A Certain Kind of Death, and the answer is relentlessly depressing, if fascinating.

The filmmakers follow a few days in the life of various government departments as the body of transient is dealt with-- the attempt to track down any surviving family, the cremation, the disposition of the man's effects. All is handled in a cold, clinical manner, with some of those involved keeping themselves sane in any way they know how.

The sheer mudanity of the situation provides, paradoxically, all the drama this unassuming little documentary needs to keep the viewer watching. The dead man is handled like just another case, one of hundreds-- which, of course, is exactly what he is to a coroner's office in a large city. The film wends to its inevitable conclusion, no surprising twists, no family suddenly popping out of the woodwork, just an old man, dead, no longer a part of society, slowly disappearing from the memories of everyone on the planet-- except that this one won't. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle as applied to film; when you observe something, it changes the dynamic. And here is the film's great irony; that this particular transient, by dint of being the subject of this documentary, is not likely to be forgotten.

None of the usual adjectives seems to apply here. You can't call the film lovely, of course. If anything, it is its own particular breed of ugliness. And yet, of course, you'll keep watching it. This is a film you should see, not for its entertainment value, but because it shows you something about the world we live in that you don't know about, perhaps never thought to ask. It is knowledge for the sake of knowledge, and there's far too little of that in the film industry these days. *** ½

Morbid Grace.......2005-10-09

This `depressing yet graceful and informative' documentary focuses on an extremely unique and untouched subject matter - What happens to the body of a person who dies without any kin alive? What does the State do when it learns that there is nobody to claim the body of the decedent or his assets and how does it manage to dispose off the body and belongings of a person so strange and acknowledged by nobody. The documentary does a good job at educating the audience with the foreseeability of a myriad of possibilities of what could happen to the human body after death; no matter how abominating and unacceptable such possibilities appear. This would caution an easy going carefree person to take certain vital steps during his lifetime to ensure a certain specific treatment to his body and estate after his death. The documentary reveals the interesting management of the bodies of three decedents until the State finally dutifully cremates or buries such unclaimed bodies, and the administration and disposition of the decedents' estates when they leave everything without a will or a kin alive. On a final note - Some of the graphic images of the dead bodies may be disturbing yet tolerable and acceptable.

Beautiful and Provocative - A Truly Unique Film.......2005-03-10

This film took me completely by surprise - I saw it at a festival, and I've been waiting for the DVD for over a year.

Disturbing, graceful, and deep.

The movie follows the LA Coroners when they find people who've died without family.

What might seem gross is actually fascinating: It's a complex, unexpected and sometimes heartbreaking process. So that I don't give it away, let's just say that the city takes care of everything, down to the last detail.

But the film is much more than just what happens.

The filmmakers find a raw beauty in the most disturbing images. More than anything, watching the fate of people who have no one makes you reflect on your own life.

Be prepared for images you will never forget.

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