Obit

Obit movie poster

Available on DiscAvailable on iTunes  Available on Google Play

Director
Vanessa Gould
Country
USA
Year
2016
Runtime
93 minutes
Supplier
Cinetic Media
Release Date
early 2017

Synopsis

Every morning, a small staff of obituary writers at The New York Times deposits the details of three or four extraordinary lives into the cultural memory – each life’s story spun amid the daily beat of war, politics, and football scores. It’s amazing what goes on in the obits. 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. 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? Longtime obituary editor of The New York Times William McDonald, and past and present staff writers on the desk are featured: including Bruce Weber, Margalit Fox, William Grimes, Douglas Martin and Paul Vitello. The Times' century-old archive (appropriately called the morgue), along with its last remaining full-time archivist Jeff Roth, is also featured. The writers de-emphasize the death, and tell stories of lives lived in extraordinary ways, often below the radar. With this comes uncommon insights – insights only the rare obituary writer could have – into the passage of generations, the astonishing cycle of life, the ebb and flow of time, and culture as it appears to accelerate and vanish at the same time.

Official Film Site / Facebook Page

More films.

  • 100 Up
  • 1971
  • Abacus: Small Enough To Jail
  • Aida's Secrets
  • Aim For The Roses
  • All The Wild Horses
  • Author: The JT LeRoy Story
  • Beyond Moving
  • Blue Note Records: Beyond The Notes
  • Bread: An Everyday Miracle
  • Buddy
  • Bugs
  • California Typewriter
  • Censored Voices
  • Chameleon
  • Chavela
  • Chef Flynn
  • Deprogrammed
  • Do Donkeys Act?
  • Fanny: The Right To Rock
  • Far: The Story Of A Journey Around The World
  • First We Eat
  • Franca: Chaos And Creation
  • Fred
  • Free Lunch Society
  • Golda
  • Gurrumul
  • High Maintenance
  • Hip Hop-eration
  • Hugh Hefner's After Dark: Speaking Out In America
  • iHuman
  • Integral Man
  • Invisible Essence: The Little Prince
  • Kedi
  • Killing Patient Zero
  • Leftover Women
  • Letters From Baghdad
  • Love, Cecil
  • Minding The Gap
  • Mountain
  • Muhi: Generally Temporary
  • Mystify: Michael Hutchence
  • Nomad: In The Footsteps Of Bruce Chatwin
  • Notes On Blindness
  • Nothing Like A Dame
  • Obit
  • Over The Limit
  • Prophecy
  • Push
  • Requiem For The American Dream
  • Ronnie's
  • School Life
  • Spettacolo
  • Swan Song
  • The Booksellers
  • The Changin' Times Of Ike White
  • The Cleaners
  • The Great Green Wall
  • The Missing Ingredient
  • The Reason I Jump
  • The Silence Of Others
  • The Workers Cup
  • This Is Not A Movie
  • United We Fan
  • Waiting For Giraffes
  • Watergate
  • Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist
  • Whose Streets?
  • Wizard Mode

Get in touch.

Visit Us

295 Lumsden Avenue
Toronto, ON M4C 2K9

Creative Materials

We don’t accept any
unsolicited creative materials.