Obit

[projekktor id=’27555′]

Directed by Vanessa Gould, Obit is a documentary that takes an inside look at the obituary team at The New York Times.

There are only a handful of editorial obituary writers in the world, and none are better than at The Times, where obits have become some of the best writing in journalism. Documentary storytelling in print. First drafts of contemporary history. Mirrors of life’s great variety, humor and pathos. Neatly framed vignettes of worlds that will vanish along with their notable stars. OBIT is the first documentary to look into the world of editorial obituaries, via the legendary obit desk at The Times. Going beyond the byline and into the minds of those chronicling life after death on the freshly inked front lines of history, the film invites some of the most essential questions we ask ourselves about life, memory and the inevitable passage of time. What do we choose to remember? What never dies?

Gould was spurred on to make this film after a friend passed away. “Few people knew him well. I feared that what little we knew of him would disappear with time. And so I wrote to most of the big English language newspapers around the world and informed them of his death, certain none of them had ever heard of him before. About a week later, the only paper that contacted me was The New York Times.”

Obit is rated PG.