{"id":343347,"date":"2025-12-14T06:34:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T06:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/activist\/diane-colemans-last-review-life-after-a-wonderful-film\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T06:34:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T06:34:14","slug":"diane-colemans-last-review-life-after-a-wonderful-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=343347","title":{"rendered":"Diane Coleman\u2019s Last Review: Life After: \u201cA wonderful film.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"


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To the best of my knowledge, one of the last tasks Founder, President and CEO of Not Dead Yet (NDY<\/a>), Diane Coleman completed, days before her sudden passing last November, was to watch Reid Davenport\u2019s Life After<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Diane intended to write a fulsome review. And although she could not publish her thoughts in time, she left one of sorts, complete in its brevity, in an email to the film\u2019s creators, saying that Life After<\/em> is: \u201ca wonderful film\u201d.<\/p>\n

In this arena and in our community, there\u2019s no higher praise. \u00a0As Diane\u2019s successor, serving as the Executive Director of NDY, and as a self-confessed cinephile, having seen the documentary several times now, I can confirm that like everything else Diane weighed in on: Of course, she\u2019s right. Life After is a wonderful film for too many reasons to expand upon here and now.<\/p>\n

But Multimedia Films<\/a>, the production house for Life After<\/em>, notes on its website a synopsis of the documentary, which in part reads:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1983, a disabled Californian woman named Elizabeth Bouvia sought the \u2018right to die,\u2019 igniting a national debate about autonomy and the value of disabled lives. After years of courtroom battles, Bouvia vanished from public view. Sundance-winner Davenport embarks on a personal investigation to find out what really happened to Bouvia and reveal why her story is disturbingly relevant today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Briefly, although the documentary is primarily about Elizabeth Bouvia, Reid Davenport \u2013 a disabled filmmaker \u2013 masterfully unveils a singular disability rights fight hidden in the collective memory of Elizabeth\u2019s family; in the unsuspecting life of a middle-class Canadian with disabilities navigating that country\u2019s eugenical healthcare enterprise; and in the eternal echo of Melissa Hickson\u2019s reasoned pleas with the ableist physician of her late husband, Michael, and the entrenched disability bias in health care that helped to ensure his life end early. <\/a><\/p>\n

Mrs. Hickson\u2019s involvement with the film is particularly poignant. The story of Michael Hickson dismantles the insincere rhetorical question proponents of decriminalized assisted suicide and euthanasia so often ask in hearings, lobbying meetings, and in online communications \u2013 Where is the record of coercion and abuse?<\/em> Michael Hickson\u2019s story provides exclamation points in this argument against discrimination by demonstrating that ableism can and does <\/em>kill through a multitude of delivery systems in health care. And that that pernicious form of ableism has never needed explicit laws to rationalize that a disabled life is worth less than those without disabilities. Assisted suicide laws don\u2019t provide the \u201cright to die\u201d any more than voting rights provide the \u201cright to think\u201d or a fishing license provides the \u201cright to breathe\u201d. Assisted suicide laws are immunity laws that protect those preying upon society\u2019s most vulnerable.<\/p>\n

From 2021, the below provides a brief glimpse into the sequence of events that eventually led to the wrongful death and disability lawsuit filed in the Michael Hickson case<\/a>, :<\/p>\n

\u201cAntibiotics were initially provided, and lab results determined they were effective. Mr. Hickson\u2019s physicians even identified the specific bacterial organism at the root of his infection. \u00a0Yet, only three days later, they abruptly withdrew the antibiotics and all life-sustaining treatment, designated Mr. Hickson as Do Not Resuscitate and placed him in hospice. When pressed for an explanation as to why they would not treat him, in a legally recorded conversation, Dr. Viet Vo told Mrs. Melissa Hickson, \u201cas of right now, his quality of life, he doesn\u2019t have much of one.\u201d Dr. Vo then distinguished Mr. Hickson from other of his patients who were being treated aggressively for COVID\u201319, \u201chis quality of life is different than theirs. They were walking, talking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Life After<\/em>, like very few film experiences demand these days, takes Marshal McLuhan\u2019s maxim \u201cthe medium is the message\u201d and synthesizes our preferred slogan, \u201cNothing About Us Without Us\u201d into a singular remarkable experience, where the director, the film, the subjects, their stories and their lives convey in kind and in distinction with our own. Or as this recent Democracy Now!<\/a> article quotes Davenport on the film:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis film is not about suicide. It\u2019s about the phenomenon that leaves disabled people desperate to find their place in a world that perpetually rejects them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Halfway through its present theatrical run, with ten more virtual showtimes and five more cities for people to screen and attend the film, Life Aft<\/em>er\u2019s schedule can be found<\/strong> HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n

Positive reviews continue to roll in, from disabled and nondisabled viewers alike. For the former, disabled people have conveyed how powerful it is to have their concerns and experiences affirmed and represented on screen. From nondisabled people, Life After<\/em> has been a perspective changing experience about the disability experience and the inherent discrimination assisted suicide laws pose in a world where disabled people have never been given full citizenship.<\/p>\n

Reid Davenport\u2019s most important film to date is a film of its time for all-time. It is ground gained, history revealed, and a gentle voice to the dark thoughts that say assisted suicide is rational just because you have a disability.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Diane,<\/p>\n

Ian McIntosh<\/p>\n

Executive Director<\/p>\n

Not Dead Yet<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 To the best of my knowledge, one of the last tasks Founder, President and CEO of Not Dead Yet (NDY), Diane Coleman completed, days before her sudden passing last November, was to watch Reid Davenport\u2019s Life After. Diane intended to write a fulsome review. 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