A Certain Kind of Death

The film follows the events that happen following three people's deaths in LA county. None of them have next of kins and are in the hand of the government.

Overall, it was good but not captivating enough. Only one of the three I felt that I really gotten to know his life or who he is. The other two people followed in the film felt "incomplete." The people they interviewed also did not seem passionate enough about their jobs, and as a result, I did not feel the emotions I expected from a film with its goal.

This is one of the best docs I have seen! Quiet and contemplative, it moves at a 'real time' pace. Highly informative, you feel as if you are in the movie via staring at the clock, or people's desks as they go about the long, drawn out process closing the deceased's affairs. That is what you want in a doc, right? This will also inspire you to get it together regarding paperwork, funeral arrangements etc. so the city/county/state doesn't have to. (It was creepy watching strangers go through a person's effects.) This movie will inspire me at least to do my dishes everyday, because you never know, it may be my last!

Disturbing, creepy, sad documentary on how the body and personal effects of those who die without kin are handled by the coroner's office.

The lack of music and narration, combined with carefully coldly composed cinematography all add to the disturbing sense of clinical isolation.

The images of real dead bodies being discovered, cataloged, and eventually reduced to ash can't help but make one ponder mortality, and how alone we all are in the end.

Yet sometimes the air of reserve feels forced, and there's a bit of repetitiveness, despite the short (69 min) running time.

Still, a fascinating, macabre, thought provoking film

This documentary is unique in its rawness. It follows the deaths of 3 people, and captures the raw facts of how the state processes what remained after they died when no family or friends came to speak for them: their body, their money, their things. Through the process and the work of different state employees, some details of the decedents' lives emerge, showing that these were real human beings with life stories - who died alone. The film is almost like a stoic parent matter-of-factly and plainly illuminating the facts and realities of death to a child who has asked.

A Certain Kind of Death is well worth watching and eye opening. Its' only uncompromising principle being a dedication to sharing the unblinking brute facts and reality of how a state manages the deaths of it's citizens.

For me, the film left a lasting impression, forcing the viewer to ask themselves the obvious question: how do I want my own death to be handled?

I love this film. The director's unblinking eye captures something extraordinary and mundane. You see the process of laying to rest the John and Jane Does of Los Angeles. Some parts are extremely graphic, showing the bodies of deceased people (vagrants really) as well as the practical and unsettlingly methodical protocol used to handle and interr the remains. Part of me sees this film as a sweet elegy about death and impermanence. The other part of me sees a film about fascism and genocide because all of the living characters are lower-middle class bureaucrats who exist in a bureaucratic fog. Whether they shuffle papers or crush incinerated bone fragments, there is an alarming detachment masked behind a thin layer of civic obligation. This is not like the docs on CourtTV; this is a thoughtful, well-shot production.