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“Away from Her“
Of all the films made about the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s, Polley’s ranks as one of the most graceful — and honest“Away from Her” (2006) is a rare film about Alzheimer’s disease, and in my opinion, one of the best. As a film adaptation of the talented Alice Munro’s short story, “The Bear Came Over the Mountain,” Sarah Polley’s film already had a strong foundation and does great justice to Munro’s storytelling ability. We meet Grant…
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Yanomami Death Ritual of Endocannibalism
How one of the most primitive tribes in the world continues to practice endocannibalism as a way to keep its late loved ones “alive”The Yanomami tribe, who live spread across 200-250 villages in the Amazon rainforest, practice the traditional death ritual of endocannibalism. This means that loved ones of the person who has died consume his or her flesh as long as he or she was a member of the kin group. A kin group does not singularly…
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Growing Wild: The Path to Natural Burial
Eloise Woods Natural Burial Park allows the dead to become one with the forestIn Eloise Woods Natural Burial Park, of Cedar Creek, Texas, there are no headstones or mausoleums. GPS coordinates mark the plots and there are detailed paper maps, but the monuments that display gravesites in conventional cemeteries do not exist at Eloise Woods. Instead, what you get is a forest of pine and cedar trees and…
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Monday Hearts for Madalene
Page Hodel creates the most beautiful hearts in an ongoing celebration of loveI Love Everything About You from A to Z It’s an honor for SevenPonds to share with our readers the story of the Monday Hearts for Madalene project, a true account of the power of love in the midst of death. The project’s origins take us to 2005: the moment Page Hodel encountered Madalene Rodriguez and fell “instantly, dizzyingly…
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Sarah Bernhardt: Sleeping Beside Death
How the eccentric and fabulous Sarah Bernhardt shook up society’s taboos about death and dyingCelebrity has drifted far from its golden Hollywood age. Instead, we have reality show stars and pop-up personalities whose talents remain nonexistent or ambiguous at best. But if ever there was an actress who rightfully captivated the public eye with both her talent and self-made persona, it would be Sarah Bernhardt. The original It Girl,…
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“Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father”
A film in which a tribute to a friend takes a shocking and unexpected turnFrom the start, Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father is a one-of-a-kind documentary. You have probably seen nothing like it before, and won’t see anything like it again. It follows filmmaker Kurt Kuenne as he tries to make sense of his best friend’s murder. Kuenne doesn’t just create a biography of Andrew Bagby’s life.…
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Belarusian Death Traditions: Funeral, Food & Family
Belarusian funeral traditions focus on two things: food and familyBelarus is a country whose history and culture remains a mystery to many westerners. As a place nestled between Russia, the Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, Belarus also has a history as a divided country. Yet, it’s precisely this diversity that peaked our interest in its funeral and death traditions. Professor Tadevush A. Navahrodski of…
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