Saturday, June 23, 12:30 p.m.
East Moline Public Library, 740 16th Avenue, East Moline IL
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Documentaries at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, and currently sitting with a “100-percent fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the informative, incisive, and moving How to Die in Oregon will be screened at the East Moline Public Library on June 23, a film the Hollywood Reporter called “an affecting profile of the patient aid-in-dying debate.”
Presented by Final Options Illinois and produced and directed by Peter Richardson, How to Die in Oregon explores the state's Death with Dignity Act that allows terminally ill patients to self-administer barbiturates prescribed by their physician to end their own lives – an act referred to as “assisted suicide” by opponents and “medical aid in dying” by proponents. In 1994, Oregon made this a legal right that now also exists now in California, Washington, Colorado, Vermont, Montana, Hawaii, and Washington D.C., throughout Canada, and in several European countries. Richardson's film consequently follows several terminally-ill Oregon residents who opt to take advantage of the Death with Dignity Act, and also follows several physicians and loved ones who demand the legal right to aid patients without fearing prosecution.
Richardson, a native Oregonian, got the idea to produce the film as the state's law was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States in the 2006 case Gonzales v. Oregon, and made How to Die in Oregon on a budget of $750,000, securing distribution from Clearcut Productions and a 2011 airing on HBO. Writing for Eye on Film, Amber Wilkinson said, “Make no mistake, this is a difficult film to watch – but it is also a surprisingly uplifting one.” And reviewing How to Die in Oregon for Movie Metropolis, Christopher Long called the film “a sensitive and deeply moving portrait that you won't find easy to shake.”
How to Die in Oregon will be presented at 12:30 p.m. on June 23, a discussion will follow the free screening, and more information on the event is available by calling (309)755-9614 or visiting EastMolineLibrary.org.
