Flight from Death
| Flight from Death | |
|---|---|
Theatrical poster | |
| Written by | Greg Bennick Patrick Shen |
| Directed by | Patrick Shen |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Producers | Patrick Shen Greg Bennick |
| Running time | 89 min. |
| Original release | |
| Release | 2003 |
Flight from Death is a 2003 documentary film that investigates the relationship of human violence to fear of death, as related to subconscious influences. The film describes death anxiety as a possible root cause of many human behaviors on a psychological, spiritual, and cultural level. It was directed by Patrick Shen, produced by Greg Bennick, and narrated by Gabriel Byrne.
Summary
The film's purpose is to investigate humankind's relationship with death, and is heavily influenced by the views of cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker's The Denial of Death. In addition to interviews with a number of contemporary philosophers, psychiatrists and teachers such as Sam Keen, Robert Jay Lifton, Irvin Yalom, Merlyn Mowrey and Daniel Liechty, the film introduces the viewer to a group of social psychologists, who conduct research in support of what they call terror management theory (terror in this case not being terrorism, but rather emotional and psychological reaction to mortality awareness). Over the last twenty-five years, proponents of terror management theory have conducted over 300 laboratory studies demonstrating that subtle reminders of death on a subconscious level motivates a statistically significant number of subjects to exhibit biased and xenophobic type behaviors, such as gravitating toward those who they perceive as culturally similar to themselves and holding higher negative feelings and judgments toward those they perceive as culturally dissimilar to themselves.
Studies and research
Terror is the result of deep psychological forces;[1] the research described in Flight from Death suggests that these forces can be explained, yielding information about personal anxiety and the motivation of social violence.
Accolades
- Beverly Hills Film Festival - Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary (2003)[2]
- Ohio Independent Film Festival - Best Documentary (2003)[3]
- Silver Lake Film Festival - Best Documentary (2003)[4]
- Malibu Film Festival - Best Documentary (2004)[5]
- Northern Lights Documentary Film Festival - Best Documentary (2004)
- Northwest Film Forum - Winning Feature (2004)[6]
- Rhode Island International Film Festival - Best Documentary (2004)[7]
See also
References
- ^ Hudson, Rex A (1999), The Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism: Who Becomes A Terrorist and Why?, Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, p. 10
- ^ Beverly Hills Film Festival, 2003 Award Winners, archived from the original on November 9, 2006, retrieved October 6, 2007
- ^ Independent Pictures, Festival's Award-winning Films Announced, retrieved October 6, 2007
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ^ The New York Times Company (2011), "Flight From Death: The Quest for Immortality (2003)", Movies & TV Dept., The New York Times, Baseline & All Movie Guide, archived from the original on May 19, 2011, retrieved October 6, 2007
- ^ The Film Connection, Flight from Death: The Quest for Immortality, archived from the original on June 13, 2006, retrieved October 6, 2007
- ^ "NWFF's 10th Annual Local Sightings, October 4–11 : Previous Award Winners and Jurors". Northwest Film Forum. Archived from the original on August 30, 2007. Retrieved October 6, 2007. (See "Local Sightings Film Festival 2004 - Northwest Film Forum" or "2004 | Local Sightings Film Festival" / "Northwest Film Forum’s 7th Annual Local Sightings Film Festival, October 8-15" for details about the showing of the film.)
- ^ Rhode Island International Film Festival, 2004 RIIFF Film Award Winners, archived from the original on September 23, 2018, retrieved October 6, 2007