THE STORY – In 1983, a disabled Californian woman named Elizabeth Bouvia sought the “right to die,” igniting a national debate about autonomy, dignity, and the value of disabled lives. After years of courtroom trials, Bouvia disappeared from public view. Disabled director Reid Davenport narrates this investigation of what happened to Bouvia.
THE CAST – Elizabeth Bouvia, Colleen Casshingham, Rebecca Castner, Teresa Castner, Reid Davenport & Michelle Hickson
THE TEAM – Reid Davenport (Director)
THE RUNNING TIME – 99 Minutes
Filmmaker Reid Davenport stated at the Sundance world premiere of his sophomore feature, “Life After,” that he has expounded over disabled Californian Elizabeth Bouvia’s petition over the requirement of a hospital to assist her death in the 1980s for several years. Bouvia, who was born with cerebral palsy and had degenerative arthritis, recruited the ACLU to help her case as she wished to maintain her bodily autonomy over America’s flawed healthcare system. For Davenport, he sees inspiration and a lineage of disabled thinking in Bouvia as another person with cerebral palsy.
In “Life After,” Davenport contextualizes Bouvia’s case regarding contemporary discussions on legal assisted suicide in the U.S. and Canada and searches for the activist after she fell from mainstream media when the California court decided she didn’t have the right to die in the late ’90s. Along with producer Colleen Cassingham, they research Bouvia’s life from available materials, interview family members of disabled people who refused doctors’ requests to abandon their loved ones, and disabled people who are for and against Medically Aid in Dying (MAID).
Davenport continues to deploy the same first-person narrative he utilized in his shorts and debut feature, “I Didn’t See You There,” in this follow-up. While “I Didn’t See You There” is more radical with its POV shots from Davenport’s hands and wheelchair, “Life After” is more conventional, with the self-reflective element of the director’s body being constantly present throughout. Still, “Life After” has a few images from Davenport’s perspective, and his presence in interview setups and exploration informs the audience of his endurance with institutional ableism and heed to the participants’ lives. Seeing him alter the environment and bring a wry, critical mind to the world is also enthralling. For example, he and Cassinghim mock the arbitrary questions on Canada’s MAID application near the end of the film before realizing the privileges and support system they have to keep fulfilling their passions as they finish reading the end of the form.
The film relies on Don Bernier’s editing to make the inclusion of Davenport, Bouvia, and disability advocates’ stories as cohesive as possible. As many of the edits have substantial dividends to connect how MAID affects different people with disabilities on the intersectionalities of race, gender, and class, there are a couple of scene transitions (such as the overview of a bill in Canada’s system to a disability rights advocate’s testimony) that don’t thread the needle forward. They ruminate the same commentary and social criticism of the healthcare system without adding new information. Though it could have been five to ten minutes shorter, “Life After” affirms and values disabled people’s agency in how they want to live their lives, as Davenport makes it clear that this film isn’t about death. He also analyzes how societal attitudes factor into disabled people’s decision whether or not to proceed with MAID, as bureaucracies force people with disabilities to be in a specific financial state to maintain financial support from the government.
The film also subverts the mystery of Bouvia’s storyline to powerful results. While many would have inserted the answers to Bouvia’s case in the film’s ending, Bernier and Davenport strategically put them before the film’s halfway mark. It would be a disservice to treat Bouvia’s story as an investigative thriller if they didn’t include Davenport’s life after contemplating this new information, so to speak. In Davenport’s eyes, there’s no “closure” in history as he, his compatriots, and everyone else live in it.
