- Welcome to Independent Lens.
I'm Pete Schwaba, host of PBS Wisconsin's Director's Cut.
Tonight's film asks the question,
"Why is it acceptable to give disabled people the means to die
before supporting them in the chance to live?"
Those are the words of the director
of tonight's film Life After, an absolutely riveting documentary
that explores tragic circumstances
in the life of Elizabeth Bouvia.
Elizabeth was a central figure in the right to die movement
in the 1980s.
Bouvia was almost completely paralyzed
from severe cerebral palsy and had degenerative arthritis.
She experienced so much suffering, she became reclusive,
eventually checking herself into a psychiatric hospital,
which affected her relationships with her family,
including her husband.
Her situation was so bad,
she asked the hospital if they would let her starve to death.
They refused and started force-feeding her,
at times needing three or four people to hold her down
while attempting to force her to eat.
Bouvia contacted the ACLU and a court case ensued.
Director Reid Davenport tells Bouvia's story
with diligent investigative journalism and filmmaking.
Along the way, he exposes the moral dilemmas
that surround the issue of assisted dying,
in particular to those who are disabled
and face challenges most people don't.
Davenport's first task
was to find out what happened to Elizabeth,
who dropped out of the public eye around 2008
after being repeatedly told
that she did not have the right to an assisted death.
Like a tenacious documentary filmmaker,
Davenport shows examples of those who are denied health care
due to their disabilities
and looks at Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying,
which assists those that have terminal illnesses
and incurable conditions,
despite not having an estimated time of death.
Davenport says he's done personal films before,
but was not expecting to be part of this film.
But since his goal was to bring together marginalized voices
from the disability community
and tell stories of disabled people dying prematurely,
he needed a messenger.
As it turned out, Devonport saw himself as the perfect guide
or conduit between the audience and Elizabeth
and his other subjects.
Why was he perfect?
Because Davenport also lives with cerebral palsy.
Davenport has won many awards for his films
and could probably be called the Sundance Kid,
as he won the Directing Award for U.S. Documentary
for his 2022 film I Didn't See You There.
He received another nomination for Life After
for the Grand Jury Prize Documentary,
and took home the U.S. Documentary Special Award
from this year's Sundance festival.
If that's not enough,
it also received the elusive 100% Fresh Rating
on Rotten Tomatoes.
I don't use the words "can't miss" very often,
but this film qualifies.
Life After starts now on PBS Wisconsin,
your home for independent film.