| Title |
Directors |
Summary |
Available From |
| So Much, So Fast |
Steven Ascher and Jeanne Jordan |
What would you do if you were 29 and found you may only have a few years to live? This story is about the remarkable events set in motion when Stephen Heywood discovers he has Lou Gehrig’s disease and his brother Jamie is obsessed with finding a cure. |
Library DVD |
| A Will for the Woods |
Amy Browne |
Determined that his last act will be a gift to the planet, a man prepares for his own green burial. Compelled by both the environmental benefits and the idea that one can remain within the cycle of life, rather than being cut off from it. He and his partner plan to use green burial to save a North Carolina woods from being clear-cut. |
Library DVD, Netflix |
| The Bridge |
Eventos Finais |
People suffer largely unnoticed while the rest of the world goes about its business. This is a documentary exploration of the mythic beauty of the Golden Gate Bridge, the most popular suicide destination in the world, and those drawn by its call. Steel and his crew filmed the bridge during daylight hours from two separate locations for all of 2004, recording most of the two dozen deaths in that year (and preventing several others). They also taped interviews with friends, families and witnesses, who recount in sorrowful detail stories of struggles with depression, substance abuse and mental illness. Raises questions about suicide, mental illness and civic responsibility as well as the filmmaker’s relationship to his fraught and complicated material. |
You Tube |
| How to Die in Oregon |
Peter Richardson |
In 1994, Oregon became the first state to legalize physician-assisted suicide. Since then, more than 500 Oregonians have taken their mortality into their own hands. Filmmaker Peter Richardson gently enters the lives of the terminally ill as they consider whether–and when–to end their lives by lethal overdose. Richardson examines both sides of the complex, emotionally charged issue. What emerges is a life-affirming, staggeringly powerful portrait of what it means to die with dignity. |
Library DVD (2) |
| Facing Death and Dying Well |
Dalai Lama |
The Dalai Lama teaching about the truth of suffering, the Three Characteristics of Existence and the dissolution of the body’s elements at death. His Holiness encourages us to develop our awareness of death and move from gross understanding to more subtle levels |
Library Streaming Video – Kanopy |
| Approaches to Dying |
Great Courses |
None of us can avoid dying. But some believe we can learn how to die well. Professor Berkson introduces you to ways that others have faced death (with regret, dignity, even rage) and also considers some of the practical ways we can make the best of our deaths when our time comes. |
Library Streaming Video – Kanopy |
| Shaking Hands With Death |
Terry Pratchett |
This 2010 BBC Richard Dimbleby Lecture, is a brilliant video featuring Terry Pratchett, a prolific English author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. In December 2007, he announced that he had early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. He felt “it should be possible for someone stricken with a serious and ultimately fatal illness to choose to die peacefully with medical help, rather than suffer.” Pratchett introduces this lecture on the topic of assisted death, but a friend reads the main text as by this time Pratchett’s condition made it difficult for him to read. |
You Tube |
