DEATH IN AMERICA

After more than three years of research and production, J.R. Olivero of World Productions (Gaithersburg, Maryland) and Dr. Stanley Burns of Burns Archive Productions have completed their latest documentary entitled "Death In America". The program, which is currently airing on Public Television, is two hours in length and explores how Americans have dealt with the issues of illness and death from colonial times to present.

"Death In America" investigates changes in popular attitudes, medical and technological advances, legislative issues, religious teachings and cultural taboos. The program also looks at the unusual, darker and occasionally humorous side of these issues. As examples, the fact that physicians kept grave robbers on retainer for well over 250 years, that tens of thousands of people in the 19th and 20th century photographed their loved ones after death and that the editor of The Ladies Home Journal invented the "living room"!

"Death In America" also explores assisted suicide, palliative care, AIDS and bereavement in the modern context with the personal perspectives of twenty prominent American experts from across the United States. Included are; Geoffrey Fieger, attorney for Dr. Jack Kevorkian, Dr. Robert White, Director of Neurosurgery for Ohio's Metrohealth Medical Center, Father Michael Place, Theological Consultant to the Archdiocese of Chicago, Dr. Linda Emanuel, Medical Ethicist for the American Medical Association and Rabbi Jacob Goldberg, bereavement counselor and State Advisor to President Clinton on issues of national mourning.

As part of its historical context, "Death In America" spoke with Eleanor Shuman, survivor of the Titanic disaster of 1912 and Libby Hruby, survivor of the Eastland wreck of 1915.

The advent of the industrial age lead to the ability to build great ships such as the Titanic, Empress of Ireland and the Lusitania. As these ships went under the water, America witnessed for the first time, a concentrated loss of life which forever changed the way we look at our country, our technology, our lives and death.

The great debates, proposals and adopted federal legislation that followed the Titanic disaster lead directly to the downing of the ship Eastland, the single worst commercial maritime disaster in American waters. The interviews with Eleanor and Libby serve as a living reminder to an age of innocence left in the wake of industrial development.

"Death In America" also visited President William Henry Harrison's memorial located in North Bend, Ohio. In addition to holding the remains of President Harrison, the memorial is purported to also hold the remains of John Scott Harrison, Ohio Senator and son of the President.

In 1879, an outrageous incident of grave robbing resulted in legislative changes across the United States. Senator Harrison had died on May 26th, 1878 and was buried three days later. The following day, one of Harrison's sons and a nephew went to Cincinnati to look for the body of William Devin, a young friend of the family. It seems Devin's body was stolen and was reported to have been at the Medical College of Ohio (University Of Cincinnati). As they were about to leave the dissecting rooms of the College, a hoist was raising a body up into the room. When the hood covering the head was removed, the Senator was recognized. The pandemonium that followed is easily imagined.

The next day Benjamin Harrison (son of John Scott Harrison) arrived and proceeded to arouse national interest in the plight of mourners and of the legitimate needs of medical men. By 1900 most states had satisfactory laws on the books allowing medical men sufficient access to bodies and the public was freed from the fear of grave robbing.

"Death In America" utilizes the unique photographic collection of Stanley B. Burns M.D. This collection of historical, medical and memorial photography is considered by both Forbes and Art & Antiques magazines as one of "the six most important private collections of photographs in the world". Dr. Burns has also written several books, among which, "Sleeping Beauty, Memorial Photography In America" and "Forgotten Marriage", have received the coveted American Photographic Historical Society's award for the best publication of their kind for 1993 and 1995, an honor never before bestowed on one author.

Dr. Burns' photographs have been featured in the PBS miniseries' "The Civil War" and "Childhood" as well as feature programs on The American Experience, The BBC and Canadian Television.

In both 1996 and 1997, "Death In America" won Telly Awards in international competition for our eighteen-minute promotional trailer and completed program. "Death In America" has also taken awards at the 1997 Philadelphia International Film Festival and the 1998 American Death Education & Counseling Conference Film Festival.

"Death In America"is currently to all public television stations nationwide through NETA (the National Educational Telecommunications Association) via satellite and available to all other interested parties through Black Mirror Films at 800-322-6502. Press kits and other information is also available.

For more information write or call:
Black Mirror Films at 301-987-5444 or worldpro@earthlink.net.

© COPYRIGHT 1998 BY BLACK MIRROR FILMS - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.