Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death
We don't know how. We don't know when. But death comes for us all. To be human is to wrestle with this truth and with the great unanswered question: How do we live with death in our eye?
Interview with Writer/Director Helen Whitney
Why did you make this film?
Making this film gave me permission to ask questions about death and dying with people for whom death had suddenly become real. How do we get through this life knowing that one day we will die? What is of ultimate value? So for last three years I had riveting unforgettable conversations. Not only about how we die. But how we live.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
People yearn to have these discussions, but too often they often turn away in fear and denial. Or in shyness. More often they delay until it is too late. “Into The Night” will allow the audience to overhear these intimate, searing conversations in community at festivals and then, when broadcast on PBS, in their living rooms with friends and family. The film will provide a safe smart place for people to listen and then initiate key discussions within their circles.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
The appeal of this program is achingly personal and universal. Mortality is the experience that unites us all, and yet finally we experience it alone. There isn’t a person on this planet who doesn’t wonder and worry about the Uber questions associated with death and meaning. As one of the characters in the film said: “Death is our first and last question. Why? And we ask it with the same amount of grief, incomprehension, rage and acceptance at sixty as at six. “
Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death - photo credit: Rocky Schenck
How has the script and film evolved over the course of their development.
The title of the film changed from “What’s Next? Oblivion or Afterlife?” to “ ”Into the Night; Portraits of Life and Death.” This change suggests the substantial shift in my thinking. In the beginning I focused on the near universal longing for some kind of afterlife and the acceptance -- for some – that this lifetime is all we have. Our hopes and fears hover around these possibilities: oblivion or afterlife. As I began conducting interviews, my scope broadened. The narratives that I encountered were richer, subtler, more variegated than that simplistic "either/or". The film evolved into a series of existential portraits of people who were shocked into a profound awareness of mortality. The question became: How do we live knowing that one day, inevitably, we will die? How do we go into the night? Do we go gently, defiantly, angrily, with acceptance, resignation? What is our story? And will it sustain us at the end?
What type of feedback have we had so far?
Overwhelmingly positive. Frankly, I think people were surprised. Many expected to leave these screenings engaged but melancholy, possibly scared. Instead, most people left exhilarated, provoked, and energized. Virtually everyone commented about the film’s unusual visual beauty and poetry, as well as its haunting musical score. “A feast for ear and eye,” as one viewer put it. Some commented on the humor and wit of many of the characters, and the chance to laugh and experience lightheartedness in some of the characters was unexpected and enjoyable.
Two prominent thinkers commented on the breadth and depth of the film, and its importance for viewers of all ages and walks of life. We expect other such reviews.
Irv Yalom: "Into the Night is a brilliant penetrating ....and bold presentation of our deepest question. It is a miraculous and courageous film that is so deep and true that it should be required viewing for all mortal beings."
Andrew Solomon: “In this penetrating, rich intimate film, Helen Whitney explores the ultimate question of how we face our own end. Though she captures the searing melancholy of people contemplating the end of life, she also contemplates the ecstasy that can accompany the letting go. Her cinematography is gorgeous, her interviews both intense and far reaching, and her ability to wrestle with our most immense uncertainties is astonishing. This is a transformative film for the ages."
Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death - photo credit: Rocky Schenck
What feedback challenged you or challenged your point of view?
I had expected – indeed assumed – that the faith narratives of believers would be sturdier as they approached death. Rock solid, and that hopes for an afterlife would trump fear and uncertainty. Belief would provide the golden thread of meaning to their lives. But with some notable exceptions, religious believers pose the same kind of questions as skeptics and atheists. Gabriel Byrne, the actor who opens the film with Dylan Thomas’ great poem, “Do Not Go Gentle Into the Night, ” describes this uncertainty eloquently: “We are all afraid of aging and annihilation, and while we may profess great faith, I think deep down, deep down, we are all doubting Thomases. “ And after my own considerable research, I discovered that the story that sustains people at the end is primarily one of secular human love, and not God or the afterlife.
I encountered inklings of this earlier in my career while producing the PBS special on 9/11, “Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero.” I had the opportunity to speak with hundreds of people who had survived the burning towers and those whose loved ones had perished. I was also able to read and listen to the unforgettable recorded cell phone messages people made to loved ones moments before their deaths. Rarely did they discuss God or their hopes for an afterlife. Instead, in these fraught moments, they spoke in purely secular terms of the enormous love they possessed for those they were leaving behind.
What are you hoping to achieve by having your film more visible on this site?
While we are obviously interested in gathering attention for the future PBS broadcast, March, 2018 , we are equally -- if not more -- interested in the afterlife of this film. It is my hope that “Into the Night” will be seen time and again in schools, colleges, hospices, churches, synagogues, at Buddhist retreats, environmental gatherings, death salons, death cafes etc . The wide exposure your site provides might be very helpful in creating a long life for this film.
Who do you need to come on board? (producers, distributors, sales agents, buyers, journalists, film festival directors) to amplify the film’s message?
We have two objectives: First we are looking for a buyer. We are in the process of raising completion funds for the rights, the color correction and the final mix for an additional polished two hour fine cut of a Part 2 that develops and deepens the themes explored in Part 1. PBS will broadcast the first two hours, Part 1, but declined to screen all four hours as a series. We believe the entire four hours is even stronger, seen on two separate evenings.
Hopefully exposure on your site will help us in our search for the right buyer. Second: We are also looking for journalists to write searching, smart, thoughtful reviews about “Into The Night.” Writers who will understand what is truly original and of value about this film. Most documentaries focus on the terrible state of health care for the aging, and on the question of control over the manner and time of our death, which are all critically important issues. But our focus is different, and unlike most --if not all films on this subject. For “Into The Night” explores a different landscape, the interior one, as well as the evolving alternative and green burial movements. It is the conversation we yearn to have with ourselves and others, but rarely do until it is too late.
Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death - photo credit: Rocky Schenck
What kind of impact would you like the film to have?
I would like to start a national conversation. Just as Bill Moyers’ brilliant PBS series "On Our Own Terms" provoked a nationwide discussion about choice in the manner and time of our dying. Or as Atul Gwande’s book and film, “Being Mortal” forced us to look hard at what medicine can and cannot do at the end of of our lives. I truly want the film to provoke a conversation about these great existential questions. And to do it now, before we are diminished in health, in pain, in dementia, or close to death. To live consciously -- Now. To get our story together. -- Now. And even though there are no definitive answers to these big questions, our lives are made much richer for asking them.
What is a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
If you were told you had six months to live, would your life change? Dramatically? And if so, would your story change about what is of ultimate value?
Website: www.IntotheNightDoc.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/intothenightdoc/
Twitter @intothenightdoc
Instagram @intothenightdoc
Interview: October 2017
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
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Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death
We don't know how. We don't know when. But death comes for us all. To be human is to wrestle with this truth and with the great unanswered question: How do we live with death in our eye?
Length: 121 min
Director: Helen Whitney
Producer: Katie Taber
Writer: Helen Whitney
Key cast: Gabriel Byrne, Actor
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000321/
Adam Frank, Astrophysicist, Author and NPR commentator http://www.npr.org/people/336050847/adam-frank
Caitlin Doughty, Alternative mortician, Author, Blogger and You Tube Personality known for advocating death acceptance and the reform of Western funeral industry practices. Caitlin has a new book coming out Oct. 4 (her second), “From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death.”