WIXOM — Farmington Hills native and 10-time Emmy award winning documentary filmmaker Keith Famie of Visionalist Entertainment Productions in Wixom heads to England and France to film several segments for his 13-part series, The Embrace of Dying. The series explores how we deal with the end of life and will be broadcast on PBS stations.
One important component of the film will explore the history and importance of hospice care, which was founded by Dame Cicely Saunders in London in 1967. She helped the dying and terminally ill end their lives in the most comfortable ways possible.
Accompanying Famie on this journey to London is Dorothy Deremo, CEO of Hospice of Michigan, one of the nation’s largest hospice programs. Famie will film Mrs. Deremo as she gains insight into the story of Dame Cicely Saunders at the Cicely Saunders Institute, as well as St. Christopher’s Hospital, where Cicely Saunders worked.
In London, Famie will film at the internationally acclaimed Highgate Cemetery where he will interview an eighth-generation funeral director, Andrew Leverton, whose family began its funeral business in 1789. Additionally, he will conduct an interview with Sue Brayne, author of The D Word: Talking About Dying and will film at the Center for Human Bioarcheology inside the Museum of London.
The Visionalist Entertainment Productions team will then travel to Provénce, France and spend the day with French author Mirelle Guiliano, who has written several books about the French paradox and women’s aging issues. Mirelle will also be featured in Famie’s other 13-part film series about women titled The Embrace of Aging: The Female Perspective Of Growing Old.
While in France, Famie will film at two of Paris’ most visited locations, the Tomb of the Unknown Solider and singer Jim Morrison’s grave.
Additionally, the full, The Embrace of Aging, seven-part series about men and aging will begin airing on Detroit Public Television in October, as the first PBS station to carry the series. This seven-part series showcases great minds of medicine and science, as well as rich, human-interest stories about men and the ups and downs of aging.
For more information on both series, visit www.embraceofaging.com.
