One Cut, One Life

Filmmakers Lucia and Ed have long discussed the idea of experimenting with first person documentary form – making a film told from two points of view, each one filming the other. When Lucia loses two of her closest friends to sudden, violent deaths, and one year later learns that Ed, her former collaborator, has just been diagnosed with a terminal illness – she and Ed know this might be their last opportunity to work together.

Jane, Ed’s wife of 50 years, is against the idea. She wants privacy. Sympathetic to Jane’s concerns, Lucia shares a reluctance to deal publicly with the loss of friends. As the “father of first person documentary”, Ed is torn too. He understands the implications of such a project. Yet filming offers a much needed creative outlet and distraction from his potential fate. When sudden loss is at your doorstep, you have no choice but to absorb the shock. What should Lucia and Ed do? The choice is not simple, but it is clear. Ed’s diagnosis gives the former collaborators an opportunity to come together, heal from past wounds, and embrace and examine life in the face of death through a medium they know best — filmmaking.

The film opens in the middle of Ed’s dilemma of whether or not to have a risky bone marrow transplant — the one possibility for a cure. If the operation is not successful, it could accelerate his death. But if he waits, his chances of success could get worse. Can Ed hedge his bets and buy more time to have a normal spring and summer? As Lucia struggles with trying to make the film and be present for Ed, she grapples with the loss of her two friends — Susan Woolf, a visual artist murdered by an ex lover, and Lucia’s roommate, Karen Schmeer, an esteemed editor, who was killed by a hit and run driver fleeing a crime scene in Manhattan. As the story unfolds, the two filmmakers must reconcile Jane’s on-again, off-again resistance to the film with their own determination to finish.

Both filmmakers are aware of the more disturbing and squeamish aspects inherent in this kind of film. One of the roles of the artist is to examine the comfortable assumptions about limits, propriety and good taste, and perhaps to overthrow them. It is that aspect of nonfiction work, when both the audience and filmmaker wonder why the filmmaker is not turning off the camera but instead chooses to keep it rolling, that underlines this film.

Set against the bucolic Vermont landscape and frenetic New York cityscape, the film interweaves current day footage with past footage of their 12-year collaboration, early film work, and old movies. It is more a story about life and cinema than a story about death. Ed and Lucia’s unique approach to filming offers a vulnerability and intimacy rarely seen in non-fiction film, even within the genre of first person documentary. It is an intense, raw, and sometimes humorous exploration of the human condition which invites the viewer to contemplate for themselves what is important, not only at the end of life, but also during.

Learning Areas:

Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Communication and informatics
Ethics, professional and legal requirements
Other professions or practice related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Discuss the medical journey of Ed Pincus from a terminal diagnosis through end of life. Analyze how he navigates making difficult decisions. Evaluate the information and advise the medical professionals give him. Formulate an end of life plan for oneself and one's family.

Keyword(s): Communication and informatics, Ethics, professional and legal requirements

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Lucia Small is a 20-year veteran independent filmmaker. In 2005, she teamed up with seminal documentarian Ed Pincus to co-direct and produce THE AXE IN THE ATTIC (2007), a story about the Diaspora of Hurricane Katrina. Small’s directorial debut MY FATHER, THE GENIUS (2002), about her visionary architect father, garnered several top festival awards and screened internationally. Small produced several other projects for PBS. She attended UCSC for her BA in Politics and Feminism.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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