''Dying at Grace'' is a Canadian documentary film, directed by

Allan King Allan Winton King, (February 6, 1930 – June 15, 2009), was a Canadian film director. Life Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, during the Great Depression, King attended Henry Hudson Elementary School, in Kitsilano.palliative care Palliative care (derived from the Latin root , or 'to cloak') is an interdisciplinary medical caregiving approach aimed at optimizing quality of life and mitigating suffering among people with serious, complex, and often terminal illnesses. Wit ...

Toronto Grace Health Centre The Salvation Army Toronto Grace Health Centre is a 150-bed hospital located at 650 Church Street in Toronto, Ontario. Owned and operated by the Salvation Army, it specializes in palliative care, post-acute care rehabilitation, and complex continu ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, exploring their thoughts and feelings on their imminent deaths. The film premiered at the

2003 Toronto International Film Festival The 28th Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 4 to September 13, 2003. A total of 336 films (252 feature length and 84 short films) from 55 countries were screened during the festival. Of the feature films, 73% were world, inte ...

, then played at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, Berlinale, Leipzig, Sydney, Singapore, Taipei, Prague, Phoenix, Vancouver, and Montreal film festivals. It was broadcast on television by

TVOntario TVO Media Education Group (often abbreviated as TVO and stylized on-air as tvo) is a publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario ...

in February 2004. The film was named to TIFF's annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list for 2003, and won the Donald Brittain Award for best television documentary on a social or political topic and best documentary film editing at the

19th Gemini Awards The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television's 19th Gemini Awards were held on December 13, 2004, to honour achievements in Canadian television. The awards show, which was co-hosted by several celebrities, took place at the John Bassett Theatre an ...

in 2004."Award show let laughter lead the way". ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'', December 14, 2004.

Reception

The film was well received attaining a 95% Fresh rating at rottentomatoes.com. It was described as "a masterpiece" by POV Magazine's John Haslett Cuff. Eye Weekly's Adam Nayman gave it five stars calling it "Wrenching and magnificent." Liam Lacey of the Globe and Mail gave it four out of four stars declaring it “one of the most powerful Canadian documentaries in a long time“. The New York Times's Jeannette Catsoulis gave it 4.5 stars out of 5 describing it as "a potent reminder of the fearful gap between fiction and reality." TIFF programmer Stacey Donan described the film as "one of the best films ever made in this country". Dying at Grace was added the Criterion Collection in 2010.

References

External links

* 2003 films 2003 documentary films Documentary films about death Donald Brittain Award winning shows Films directed by Allan King Canadian documentary films 2000s English-language films 2000s Canadian films {{2000s-Canada-documentary-film-stub