by Dov Kornits
“Since losing several family members and seeing people around me unprepared for the emotional impact of death, I have been passionate about bringing meaningful and frank conversations around death and dying into the public sphere through film,” says Amiel Courtin-Wilson, an independent artist and filmmaker whose output has included acclaimed documentaries Bastardy and The Silent Eye and features Hail and Ruin.
“We began researching a project called TRACES in 2015 – a highly ambitious feature documentary shot entirely with thermal imaging cameras about the human body at the moment of death that is being released in 2023. Our team spent three years reaching out to over 1500 hospices, dying with dignity organisations, doctors and various community groups in Australia, the US, Canada, Europe and South East Asia.
“The subject of Man on Earth, Robert Rosenzweig then heard about this other project TRACES and decided to contact us to see if we wanted to make a film about him.”
“The need for a more nuanced and rigorous conversation around end of life is certainly what fuelled our passion for the entire project,” adds Man on Earth and TRACES producer Alice Jamieson-Dowd. “Bob is a particularly amazing character to help audiences face these issues because of his quick acerbic wit and his working class Jewish New York turn of phrase.”
Bob Rosenzweig is 65 years old, a free spirit – he loves and plays rock music and proudly claims to have been to Woodstock, bathroom designer – he proudly claims on camera that Elton John was one of his happy customers, and suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. Already highly medicated and in great pain, and well aware of what’s ahead, Bob decided to end his life. His contact with Amiel and the team was only 1 month before the arranged day for euthanasia.
“We shot for eight days in the small town of Aberdeen Washington – where Kurt Cobain was born and raised – and then returned a year after Bob’s death to spread his ashes with his family and shoot for another three days,” says Amiel about the shoot. “Finally, we had a substantial shoot in Melbourne on location and in several studios to capture a lot of the sequences throughout the film. We captured around 140 hours in total for the film – most of which was observational material by our wonderful cinematographer Jac Fitzgerald [below left, with Bob, Amiel and Alice].
“In terms of tone, I looked to elements of films by [Artavazd] Peleshian, more recent films such as Fire at Sea, Bresson, Philippe Grandrieux in terms of how he films the human body – also the painter Monet’s work The Magpie in terms of palette,” Amiel comments about his approach to what is essentially an observational documentary. “I probably have more photography, painting and narrative film references than doc references though for my documentary work!”
The majority of Man on Earth follows Bob as he negotiates his decision with himself and his carer son, another son who cannot accept his decision, and the love of his life, who is stricken down with cancer. As dour as this all sounds, Bob’s journey is truly life affirming. “Because of the intensity of Bob’s remaining days alive, all his relationships were fuelled by this incandescent quality and as a result intimacy felt very accelerated and heightened,” says Amiel. “Bob officially welcomed us into his family after a day of knowing him and this need for sincere human connection was also what guided our decision to occasionally include our interactions on camera.”
“We were questioning Bob’s decision throughout the process,” adds Alice about the possible ethics of making such a documentary. “And actually, we offered Bob a small holiday to Cuba and the opportunity to visit his partner Pam in Boston on the other side of the country, but he declined – it was clear at that point that he was resolute in his decision.”
“Bob made us promise him that we would work extremely hard to bring his story and his film to as many people as we possibly could,” Alice continues about the mission statement behind this highly impactful film. “For that reason, I’m far more open to alternate modes of distribution, making alternate versions of the film and working with philanthropic organisations to help tailor intensive community outreach program of screenings both in Australia and internationally. We have certainly had a number of heated conversations with people during our research around this film but up until now audiences have been extremely positive about Man on Earth – most particularly because of the sensitivity and compassion with which it’s been made.”
What’s next for Amiel Courtin-Wilson, who now seems to be working at no fixed address? “I’ve always worked in the US intermittently since my first documentary Chasing Buddha in 2000 but yes I’m spending more and more time in America and Europe,” he comments. “I have two upcoming narrative features set in the US and one set in Australia and the US, but I still feel extremely strongly about supporting emerging filmmaking voices in Australia and cultivating a more robust discourse amongst practitioners in general – for that reason I could never leave Australia entirely – I just want us to take more risks and support more creatively uncompromising voices!”
Man on Earth is screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival
