Interview:
Reid Davenport,
director,
Colleen Cassingham,
producer,
"Life After"
Directed by Reid Davenport, the documentary Life After examines how some current assisted dying laws disenfranchise disabled people in the United States and Canada. Davenport takes a long, hard look at the consequences of Canada’s 2021 loosening of restrictions for disabled people seeking access to Medical Aid in Dying (MAID), a law enacted in 2016 to as an end-of-life option for the terminally ill. Davenport frames his investigation against the life of Elizabeth Bouvia, a California woman and disabled person whose 1983 legal case helped bring to the forefront the American right-to-die movement. Among the subjects interviewed by Davenport is Austinite Melissa Hickman, who fought to keep her husband Michael Hickson from being transferred from an intensive care unit to hospice care during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Michael Hickson, who was left quadriplegic in 2017 after going into sudden cardiac arrest, died at age 46 in June 2020 in hospice care after contracting COVID-19. Life After makes the argument that many government entities are failing disable people by pushing them to consider medical aid in dying instead of providing or funding the services they need to live with dignity. Produced by Colleen Cassingham, Life After will screen at 7:30 p.m. July 30 at the AFS Cinema with director Reid Davenport in attendance. The Austin Film Society will also offer virtual screening of Life After at 8 p.m. July 31 and 4 p.m. Aug. 2. Reid Davenport, a disabled filmmaker, specializes in feature-length and short documentaries about disability from a sociopolitical viewpoint. He previously directed I Didn’t See You There, which earned him Best Director for U.S. Documentary Feature at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Colleen Cassingham recently produced the documentary TV miniseries Queer Futures and Through Our Eyes. She also co-produced the SXSW Film & TV Festival 2025 selection The Tallest Dwarf and the upcoming documentary To Use a Mountain.
Aired: July 23, 2025. Web sites: https://www.lifeafterfilm.com/ https://www.reiddavenport.com/ https://www.austinfilm.org/screening/life-after/ |
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