PaleyArchive ColorBars TopBanner2

LETTING GO: A HOSPICE JOURNEY (TV)

Summary

This raw and poignant documentary explores hospice, an organization focused on providing medical, emotional, and spiritual support to the terminally ill, produced by Maysles brothers protŽgŽ Susan Froemke using the characteristic vŽritŽ format of the groundbreaking filmmakers. The film follows the progression of three terminally ill people to their deaths, giving viewers a glimpse of the all-encompassing support and care hospice staff and volunteers commit to dying patients and their families. Michael Merseal, an eight-year-old boy dying of a rare brain disease, is being cared for at home by his father, his sister, and a team of hospice professionals. His primary nurse, Andi Dreiling, and primary physician, Dr. Ira Byock, explain in an interview that they want to orchestrate his death by keeping his frequent seizures to a minimum. In conversation with her superior, Dreiling explains that the father, Michael Merseal, has been given positive tasks to empower him as his dying son's caretaker and that they have brought in a social worker for Krystal, the nine-year-old sister who has recently been abandoned by her mother. The program moves on to Anna Turner, a forty-six-year-old mother dying of cancer. She and her hospice social worker, Ann Currier, discuss how Turner and her family are coping with illness. Turner remains positive that she will make a full recovery, but Currier worries about how Turner's son and daughter will react if her illness continues. Currier explains that she is equally concerned that Turner's strong faith in a recovery is keeping her from making life assessments that will help her family through her impending death. The film next introduces Ralph Armstrong, a sixty-two-year-old man dying of a brain tumor, and his team of hospice workers. Ralph stays at a hospice rehabilitation center, where Dr. Brad Stuart talks with his patient about facing death. Currier visits Charles Koines, an elderly man at peace with his life and ready to face death. Next, Dr. Stuart confirms with Armstrong that he wants to stop radiation treatments in order to control his cancer. In a session with Armstrong's caretakers, Dr. Stuart emphasizes that his patient is now facing life-assessment issues, and Armstrong eventually reconciles with his wife, daughter, mother, and sister. In the meantime, Turner learns that her cancer is spreading, and her physician, Dr. Fred Schwartz, worries that she is not facing up to her impending death. The film concludes as the patients and their families deal with the inevitable approach of death.

Details

  • NETWORK: HBO
  • DATE: March 18, 1996 10:15 PM
  • RUNNING TIME: 1:29:54
  • COLOR/B&W: Color
  • CATALOG ID: T:64063
  • GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
  • SUBJECT HEADING: Public affairs/Documentaries; Death and dying; Hospice care
  • SERIES RUN: HBO - TV, 1996
  • COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

  • Sheila Nevins … Executive Producer
  • Susan Froemke … Producer
  • Douglas Graves … Co-Producer
  • Susan Brignoli … Associate Producer
  • Deborah Dickson … Production (Misc.), Film Editor, A film by
  • Albert Maysles … Camera
  • Janice Isaac … Researcher
  • Mader … Music by
  • Ralph Armstrong
  • Ira Byock
  • Ann Currier
  • Andi Dreiling
  • Charles Koines
  • Krystal Merseal
  • Michael Merseal
  • Michael Merseal
  • Fred Schwartz
  • Brad Stuart
  • Anna Turner