Death and Dying

This clinical program travels to the world's first open-air crime lab with founder Bill Bass, of The University of Tennessee, for a close-up look at how cadavers decay. As proxies for murder victims, these decomposing bodies are studied in the name of science and the cause of justice. Factors and biological markers that help pinpoint time since death, including wind and weather, insects and carnivores, fire damage, soft tissue leachate, mold, and bacteria, are addressed. Three homicide cases that hinged on data and expertise gained at the Farm are presented, and Ph. D. students are filmed doing field work and body processing.

1. Jean Cocteau turns the Orpheus legend into a story of a poet and his encounter with death and the middle world. 2. An artist is driven mad by the sight of his own blood and a drawing of a mouth that seems to come to life. The combination sends him off on a series of bizarre adventures that strive to explain how artists become obsessed with their own works. 3. In his last film Cocteau portrays an 18th century poet who travels through time on a quest for divine wisdom. In a mysterious wasteland, he meets several symbolic phantoms that bring about his death and resurrection. The film finished the circle of the journey begun in Blood of a Poet, exploring the torturous relationship between the artist and his creations.

The first (and currently only) documentary about one of New Orleans' most colorful ceremonies. "New Orleans Jazz Funerals...from the Inside" delves into the fascinating history and evolution of this unique celebration of life and death. You'll learn what it means to "cut the body lose" and dance in the "second line". Hosted and narrated by the late, great jazz trumpeter Milton Batiste, this program is as authentic as it gets.

In medieval Sweden a knight returns from war only to find a ravaged homeland. He meets up with a group of traveling players and eventually confronts the embodiment of death with whom he engages in a game of chess for his life. The knight and Death play as the cultural turmoil envelopes the people around them as they try, in different ways, to deal with the upheaval the plague has caused.

Charlton Heston plays a cop in this science-fiction horror story. The setting is New York in the year 2022, teeming with 40 million citizens, most of whom are out of work. Environmental erosion is almost complete and voluntary death is encouraged by government-sponsored clinics. For their food, the people have grown to rely on a wafer-like substance called soylent. As Heston investigates the murder of a magnate in the dictatorial Soylent Company, he comes face to face with the hideous truth about the secret ingredient of "Soylent Green."