A Certain Kind of Death (2003)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Directors:

Grover Babcock
Blue Hadaegh

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

Unblinking and unsettling, this documentary lays bare a mysterious process that goes on all around us - what happens to people who die with no next of kin. |

Awards:

3 wins & 1 nomination

Directed by
Grover Babcock
Blue Hadaegh

Runtime:

69 min

Country:

USA

Color:

Color

beautiful and somewhat horrific

I love this film. The director's unblinking eye captures something extraordinary and mundane. You see the process of laying to rest the John and Jane Does of Los Angeles. Some parts are extremely graphic, showing the bodies of deceased people (vagrants really) as well as the practical and unsettlingly methodical protocol used to handle and interr the remains. Part of me sees this film as a sweet elegy about death and impermanence. The other part of me sees a film about fascism and genocide because all of the living characters are lower-middle class bureaucrats who exist in a bureaucratic fog. Whether they shuffle papers or crush incinerated bone fragments, there is an alarming detachment masked behind a thin layer of civic obligation. This is not like the docs on CourtTV; this is a thoughtful, well-shot production.