Community Showing of “Facing Death” Documentary
Gallatin Valley Circle of Compassion invites community members to attend a showing of the FRONTLINE documentary Facing Death, on Thursday February 18, 2016, 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm at the Bozeman Public Library. The film will start at 5:15 and be followed by a discussion and refreshments. This event is free and open to the public.
Facing Death, which premiered as a PBS special, is a documentary on end-of-life healthcare choices — written, produced and directed by Emmy Award-winning Miri Navasky and Karen O’Connor. In filming this documentary, the crew gained extraordinary access to The Mount Sinai Medical Center, one of New York’s biggest hospitals, to examine the complicated reality of today’s modern, medicalized death. Doctors and nurses struggle to guide families through the maze of end-of-life choices: whether to pull feeding and breathing tubes, when to perform expensive surgeries and therapies or to call for hospice. “What modern medicine is capable of doing is what 20 years ago was considered science fiction,” says Dr. David Muller, dean of medical education at Mount Sinai. “You can keep their lungs breathing and keep their heart beating and keep their blood pressure up and keep their blood flowing. … That suspended animation [can go] on forever. [So] the decisions at the end of life have become much more complicated for everyone involved.” The film also offers an unusually intimate portrait of patients facing the prospect of dying in ways that they might never have wanted or imagined.
This community event is hosted by the nonprofit group Gallatin Valley Circle of Compassion as part of a series of documentary presentations on the subject of death and dying. Gallatin Valley Circle of Compassion is a volunteer group of local community members who are professionally and/or personally touched by the human experience of death and dying. Their mission: “Connecting, educating and supporting our community regarding questions and issues related to death and dying”.
For more information about the documentary showing, please contact Arlene at (406) 223-4707. To learn more about the Gallatin Valley Circle of Compassion and their 5th annual Mountains of Courage conference, “Dialogues with the Living about Death and Dying”, visit www.gallatinvalleycircleofcompassion.org
