Beyond the Suffering —Documenting Human Death and Dying

Abstract

This paper presents the development of and reactions to a documentary featuring the perceptions that doctors and medical students have about human death and dying. What stands out most overall is the relationship between human death and suffering. The underlying purpose of the documentary is to provide a venue/moment in which to prompt viewers to reflect on human death and dying, and to present a vision of education as a process whereby alterities converge and ideally generate a relationship of enchantment. To accomplish this, the film relied as heavily on iconicity as it did on opportunities to record conversations and face-to-face interactions.