Thu, Sept 14 / 9 pm
Fri, Sept 15 / 7 pm
Sat, Sept 16 / 3 pm & 7 pm
Sun, Sept 17 / 7 pm
Wed, Sept 20 / 7 pm
Thu, Sept 21 / 9 pm
Directed by Vanessa Gould
2016, USA, 93 min
Opening night Screening Introduced by Kevin Rollason.
“The richest stories in the best newspapers are often buried away on the obituaries pages. In Obit, Vanessa Gould meets the people who write them for the New York Times – practitioners of a form which has ‘nothing to do with the death and almost everything to do with the life’. A thoughtful, entertaining, and at times eccentric bunch, the journalists explain how they choose their subjects, from Stalin’s daughter to the inventor of the Slinky, the morbid calculus that determines who gets an ‘advance’ – an obit prepared while its subject is still alive – and how they deal with questions about their jobs at dinner parties. Obit is disarmingly upbeat and life-affirming – it is all there in the paper’s vault of yellowing clippings and photographs. Absorbing and affectionate, Obit is a tonic for writers and lovers of good writing.” – New Zealand International Film Festival
Kevin Rollason has been a reporter at the Winnipeg Free Press since 1988. He has specialized in stories involving health, justice, aviation, philanthropy, disability – and death. He received a National Newspaper Award in 2015. But, for almost 15 years, he has worked on an end of the year obituary project where he briefly chronicles the lives of every prominent – and notable – Manitoban who dies that year. As well, Rollason is the Free Press’ main writer during the year for the stories of prominent people who die.
