''Flight from Death'' (2003) is a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

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 Patrick Shen (born 1975) is an American writer and director and producer. Shen is the founder of Transcendental Media. Documentaries Shen directed the Emmy-nominated documentary ''We Served With Pride: The Chinese American Experience in WWII'', ...

, produced by Greg Bennick, and narrated by

Gabriel Byrne Gabriel James Byrne (born 12 May 1950) is an Irish actor, film director, film producer, screenwriter, audiobook narrator, and author. His acting career began in the Focus Theatre before he joined London's Royal Court Theatre in 1979. Byrne's s ...

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 Ernest Becker (September 27, 1924 – March 6, 1974) was an American cultural anthropologist and author of the 1974 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, '' The Denial of Death''. Biography Early life Ernest Becker was born in Springfield, Massachuset ...

's ''

The Denial of Death ''The Denial of Death'' is a 1973 book by American cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker. The author builds on the works of Søren Kierkegaard, Sigmund Freud, Norman O. Brown, and Otto Rank to discuss the psychological and philosophical implicat ...

''. In addition to interviews with a number of contemporary philosophers, psychiatrists and teachers such as

Sam Keen Sam Keen (born 1931) is an American author, professor, and philosopher who is best known for his exploration of questions regarding love, life, wonder, religion, and being a male in contemporary society. He co-produced ''Faces of the Enemy'', an a ...

, 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 Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

, 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 Xenophobia () is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a ...

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

In a recent study, the research team discovered that reminding Palestinians of their own death through subconscious means inspired conscious shifts in opinion towards wanting to become

suicide bomber A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...

s. This subconscious death reminder inspired the subjects to act aggressively against differing others, even at the risk of losing their own lives. Terror is the result of deep psychological forces; the research described in ''Flight from Death'' suggests that these forces can be explained, yielding information about personal

anxiety Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil and includes feelings of dread over anticipated events. Anxiety is different than fear in that the former is defined as the anticipation of a future threat wh ...

and the motivation of social violence.

Accolades

Beverly Hills Film Festival The Beverly Hills Film Festival (BHFF) is a film festival in the United States founded in 2001 by independent filmmaker Nino Simone. The festival is an international competition dedicated to showcasing the art and talent of emerging filmmakers a ...

- Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary (2003) *Ohio Independent Film Festival - Best Documentary (2003) * Silver Lake Film Festival - Best Documentary (2003) *Malibu Film Festival - Best Documentary (2004) *Northern Lights Documentary Film Festival - Best Documentary (2004) *

Northwest Film Forum The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

- Best Documentary (2004) *

Rhode Island International Film Festival Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) takes place every year in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island as well as satellite locations throughout the state. History Started in 1997, the Festival is produced by Flickers, the ...

- Best Documentary (2004)

References

External links

Official website
* {{IMDb title , id = 0365215 , title = Flight from Death: The Quest for Immortality 2003 television films 2003 films American documentary films Documentary films about death 2000s English-language films 2000s American films

Summary

Studies and research

Accolades

See also

References

External links