SYNOPSIS
LIFE AFTER is a gripping investigative documentary that exposes the tangled web of moral dilemmas and profit motives surrounding assisted dying. Disabled filmmaker Reid Davenport uncovers shocking abuses of power while amplifying the voices of the disability community fighting for justice and dignity in an unfolding matter of life and death.
In 1983, a disabled Californian woman named Elizabeth Bouvia sought the “right to die,” igniting a national debate about autonomy and the value of disabled lives. After years of courtroom battles, Bouvia vanished from public view. Sundance-winner Davenport embarks on a personal investigation to find out what really happened to Bouvia and reveal why her story is disturbingly relevant today.
LIFE AFTER brings together the missing voices of the disability community in the ongoing debate about assisted dying, uncovering chilling stories of disabled people dying prematurely. Davenport exposes the intersection of systemic failures and personal autonomy, challenging the idea that assisted dying always represents a free choice, when it can sometimes be seen as the only option.
The film asks a probing question, why is it acceptable to give disabled people the means to die, before supporting them in the chance to live?
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
I’m a filmmaker in New York City, living in a progressive milieu where conversations about the "right to die" hinge on treasured values of choice and bodily autonomy. But as a disabled person, I can sense people’s undisguised fear of disability just below the surface. What’s a hot button dinner party topic for some is utterly sinister for me, as I see people in my life exhibit a higher tolerance for the deaths of disabled people than for non-disabled people. The decision to make LIFE AFTER was a deliberate one, precisely because of the number of issues it raises, which transcend the issue of assisted suicide.
After I discovered the case of Elizabeth Bouvia almost a decade ago, she became one of my reference points for the contemporary debate around assisted dying. I thought about her when I came across stories in the US about disabled people being either allowed to die or murdered without consequence. I thought about her as I watched in horror in 2020, as Canada began to allow disabled people—many impoverished, out of options—to take their own lives. As Elizabeth continued to cross my mind, I wondered if there was more to her story.
LIFE AFTER is an attempt to recontextualize a national news story that was forgotten just as quickly as it broke. Bouvia's life, as I suspected, has much more resonance today than her public saga initially revealed. Her life needs to be remembered in its entirety, with the recovered pieces excavated in this film. Her story offers a provocation: why is it acceptable to give disabled people the means to die, before supporting them in the chance to live?
— Director Reid Davenport
Image 1: Director Reid Davenport thinking on his couch, with his head wresting in his hand. He is a white man with curly brown hair and glasses, and he looks at the camera. To his left in the foreground is a laptop and a phone on a side table.
Image 2: A person holds a sign that reads, ‘ASSISTED SUICIDE: The World’s Cheapest Healthcare.’ They are a wheelchair user with two face masks on, wearing a pink shirt that says ‘NOT DEAD YET,’ in the middle of a busy room at a protest at the New York State Assembly.
Image 3: Sarah Jama, a a Somali-Canadian woman and the co-founder of Disability Justice Network Ontario, sits at her laptop in an office space. In the background, a banner for the Disability Justice Network Ontario is laid across a blue structure.