Narrative and visual representations of death, as raw material for cinematographic creation, can be seen as symptoms of our culture and of the way we interact with the world and with others. The body appears as a material object and an irrefutable proof of our finitude, but also as a support and extension of our life. In the second screening of the films produced under the class “Death and Documentary”, the body becomes a core element, an object of study, producer of movement and support of social conventions. The filmmakers pursue ways to approach and represent the body - alive or dead - as an aestheticized space that exists as a vital element and “visual silence”. The body thus becomes an object of mediated contemplation, like poetic elegies. In this presentation, through film, the body is transformed and fixed as an art object.

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🎞 Enclosure

In the monastery, living in confinement, life flows between meditation and contemplation. Daily tasks are shared among the sisters and mark the time while days go by.

Direction: António Brito

Production: course Death and Documentary / Universidade da Maia - ISMAI

Portugal | 0:10:27 | 2021 | Color; Documentary.

🎞 How Can a Close Death Affect You?

Father, husband, and 59-year-old High school science teacher, Greg Sandford, discusses the challenges he has faced losing his wife to breast cancer. He touches on subjects relative to his various stages of grief, religious values, fate, and how moving forward is important.

Direction: Mattie Jones

Production: course Death and Documentary / RTF - UT Austin

EUA | 0:06:06 | 2021 | Color; Documentary.

🎞 A Light that Goes Out

For almost 30 years, a shoe factory in Oliveira de Azeméis, Portugal, was the livelihood and the everyday work of a couple and their employees. Until the day when some financial problems closed the factory and only memories were left behind.

Direction: Iva Martins

Cinematography: Iva Martins & Sheila Correia

Production: course Death and Documentary / Universidade da Maia - ISMAI

Portugal | 0:09:22 | 2021 | Color; Documentary.

🎞 Unorthodox Airwaves

Volunteer radio DJs discuss the importance of local, community-based radio as more cities see their remaining stations disappear from the air.

Direction: Harper Carlton & Matthew Evans

Production: course Death and Documentary / RTF - UT Austin

EUA | 0:07:28 | 2021 | Color; Documentary.

🎞 In My Entirety

A connection between dancers, their space, and each other in a time of physical separation and virtual connection.

Direction: Miah Mayberry

Production: course Death and Documentary / RTF - UT Austin

EUA | 0:07:57 | 2021 | Color; Documentary.

🎞 It's (Not) Just Hair

Three generations of women discuss their perceptions of pubic hair.

Direction: Lily Wickstrom

Production: course Death and Documentary / RTF - UT Austin

EUA | 0:08:30 | 2021 | Color; Documentary / Animation.