Death and the Human Response: Buddhism

The past semester I and another student have been working on a series of videos focusing on the phenomenon of death and the human response to death as part of a school research group. There are six of us in the group, and everyone has helped the process in some way, but the whole project was really Brad Sadd's idea, and I was lucky enough to have the cameras needed to film and the computer/software needed to edit the video together. I have really enjoyed working on this project as it gave me a chance to combine photography, documentary film, and philosophy all into one project.

With all of the footage that we have captured in the past semester we have 8 short films in the works, although this is the only one ready to show at this moment. By the end of the month we should have about 4, and all of them should be finished by the end of June, but of course I will keep you updated as we progress.

This particular film raises questions about the viability of the eastern philosophy of Buddhism as an adequate belief system to cope with suffering and the realization of one's own mortality and I believe that it approaches the topic on a level that is easy for all to understand. [View the movie below, or see it on YouTube here.]



The films cover a variety of topic touching on everything from something as general as "What is death?" to famous arguments by ancient philosophers about the futility of dreading death to psychological and biological reactions to death. At this time I have plans to continue this project for another year, expanding the series to look at various religious communities' responses to death and attitudes towards the belief in an afterlife.

-joshua