39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I am the breast cancer patient in the film, September 8, 2005
This review is from: Flight From Death - The Quest for Immortality (DVD)
Working on this film and having the good fortune to meet Greg and Patrick gave me a voice. I have read the criticisms about filming me in a mausoleum, and I would like to clear this up. I love cemeteries and I am dealing with my own mortality. I asked them to film me in a place where I loved to walk around. If you look at some of the tombstones you learn a great deal about the residents there. And I couldn't have worked with two more sensitive people than Greg and Patrick. They were concerned I was over doing it.
I would hope that the critic listened to what I had to say, because I'd like to think people will learn from my experience.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
How do we think of death?, July 2, 2005
This review is from: Flight From Death - The Quest for Immortality (DVD)
Until I saw this documentary, I never really took the time to think about death as I am only in my mid-thirties. But this documentary goes much further than that and asks why do people go to war and why do people kill others? There are discussions about why the terror attacks were made on the World Trade Center. But this analysis goes beyond all the hyped-up media you have seen to date. The film is about fear of our own mortality. During the hour you spend watching this film, your eyes are opened to your own fears. While these feelings may be obvious, the reality as it hits you is almost shocking. If you would like insight on not only yourself, but the rest of the people on the planet, regardless of race or religion, this documentary is well worth your time.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The most important film I've ever seen, September 28, 2005
This review is from: Flight From Death - The Quest for Immortality (DVD)
Flight from Death does not try to tackle the question of what happens after death. Instead, it poses questions that ask how dying and death affect living and life. Questions such as: Why do people try to avoid death? Why is death so feared? Why is it so difficult to even think about the inevitability of our own death, much less discuss it? What role does the fear and anxiety of death have in our subconscious? Is the fear and anxiety of death a root motivator behind everyday behaviors?
I'm not sure how much the film actually provides answers these questions, which is good. What makes this film so important is that it puts these difficult, normally avoided questions squarely on the table for discussion, letting us find our own answers.
Ever since I saw Flight from Death at a special screening two years ago in San Francisco, I've thought of it as the most important film I've ever seen. Over time, waiting for the DVD, I wondered if I'd feel the same. I do. For those of us who have spent part of life surrounded by death, this film helps to make 'impossible' conversations possible.
One last thing that I found so wonderfully refreshing is that Flight from Death doesn't treat death in a slow-moving, somber or sullen tone. Through quick editing, some fast-motion cinematography and lively, thought-provoking interviews, the film treats death as a meaningful celebration of life. As I remember Toni Riss (the breast cancer patient interviewed in the film) saying at the special SF screening in 2003, "Faced with death, living my life has never been better."
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