This section contains a rich treasure trove of resources on death, dying and grief to help you and/or your loved ones experiencing grief & loss in all its forms. Find the latest books, articles, organizations, materials, links and research focusing on this complex subject. Please check out the BEREAVEMENT, LOSS & DISENFRANCHISED GRIEF SERVICES page.
BOOKS
Anticipatory Grief
Dying Well by Ira Byock
The Needs of The Dying by David Kessler
On Death and Dying by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing and Dying by Ram Dass
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying -Sogyal Rinpoche
Being with the Dying – Joan Halifax
Final Gifts by Maggie Callanan
Being Mortal Atul Gawande
The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe
Child, Stillborn and Miscarriage Loss (also see Suicide Loss)
The Grieving Garden/Living With the Death of a Child by Suzanne Redfern and Susan K. Gilbert
When the Bough Breaks/Forever after the Death of a Son or Daughter by Judith R. Bernstein, Ph.D.
Beyond Tears: Living After Losing a Child – written by nine mothers
Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road by Neil Peart
A Broken Heart Still Beats: After Your Child Dies By Anne McCracken, Mary Semel
The Bereaved Parent by Harriett S. Schiff
Empty Arms: Coping With Miscarriage, Stillbirth and Infant Death by Sherokee Ilse
They Were Still Born: Personal Stories about Stillbirth by Janel Atlas
Forever Our Angels by Hannah Stone (miscarriage)
The Worst Loss: How Families Heal from the Death of a Child by Barbara D. Rosof
An Intimate Loneliness: Supporting Bereaved Parents and Siblings by Pam Dawson
Children’s Grief
When Children Grieve: For Adults to Help Children Deal with Death, Divorce, Pet Loss, Moving, and Other Losses Paperback by John W. James, Russell Friedman, and Leslie Matthews
A Child’s View of Grief By Alan Wolfelt
Finding Your Own Way to Grieve: a Creative Activity Workbook for Kids and Teens on the Autism Spectrum by Karla Helbert
An Empty Seat in Class: Teaching and Learning after the Death of a Student by Rick Ayers
When Dinosaurs Die: A Guide to Understanding Death by Laurie Kransy Brown and Mark Brown (recommended for ages 4 – 8)
When Someone Very Special Dies by Marge Heegarrd (to be illustrated by children)
The Tenth Good Thing About Barney by Judith Viorst (recommended for ages 6 – 9)
Badger’s Parting Gifts by Susan Varley (recommended for ages 4 – 8)
Everett Anderson’s Goodbye by Lucille Clifton (loss of father)
No Matter What by Debi Gliori
Grandma’s Gone to Live in the Stars by Max Haynes
The Grandpa Tree by Mike Donahue and Susan Dorsey
Lifetimes: The Beautiful Way to Explain Death to Children by Bryan Mellonie and Robert Ingpen (recommended for ages 3 – 10)
The Cemetery Quilt by Kent and Alice Ross
Help for the Hard Times: Getting Through Loss by Earl Hipp
Grandad’s Prayers of the Earth by Douglas Wood and P.J. Lynch
Tear Soup by Pat Schweibert, Chuck DeKlyen and Taylor Bills
The Fall of Freddy the Leaf by Leo Buscaglia (recommended for ages 5 – 8)
The Fault in Our Stars by author John Green (preteen-adult)
Muddles, Puddles and Sunshine (Winston’s Wish) by Diana Crossley
The Scar by Charlotte Moundlic
Dreams and the Grieving Process (SEE DREAM & SLEEP RESOURCES)
Grief Transformed: Dreams and the Mourning Process by Susan Olson (child loss)
Dreaming Beyond Death: a Guide to pre-Death Dreams and Visions by Kelly Bulkeley & Patricia Bulkley (anticipatory)
The Dream Messenger: How Dreams of the Departed Bring Healing Gifts by Patricia Garfield (general)
On Death & Dreams by Marie-Louise Von Franz (general)
Dreamers Book of the Dead by Robert Moss (general)
Grief Dreams: How They Help Heal Us After The Death Of A Loved One by T.J., Wray & A.B. Price
Children’s Grief Dreams and the Theory Of Spiritual Intelligence.by Kate Adams and Brendan Hyde
Children’s Dreams During The Grief Process By C. Cooper
Through A Glass Darkly: Images Of The Dead In Dreams by Deidre Barrett
Sleep Monsters and Superheroes: Empowering Children Through Creative Dreamplay various authors; edited by Clare Johnson and Jean Campbell
General Loss
It’s OK That You’re Not OK: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn’t Understand by Megan Devine
Life Lessons: Two Experts on Death and Dying Teach Us About the Mysteries of Life and Living by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and David Kessler
How to Go on Living When Someone You Love Dies by Therese A. Rando
A Time to Grieve: Meditations for Healing After the Death of a Loved One by Carol Staudacher
The Wilderness of Grief and Understanding Grief – Helping Yourself Heal by Alan Wolfelt
Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes by William Bridges
I’m Grieving as Fast as I Can – Linda Feinberg
True Compass: A Memoir by Edward Kennedy
Lead Me Home: An African-American’s Guide Through The Grief Journey by Carleen Brice
I Wasn’t Ready to Say Goodbye – Brook Noel
Poetic Medicine, The Healing Art of Poem Making by John Fox
Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames and No Death, No Fear by Tich Nhat Hahn
Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning by Victor Frankl
When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold Kushner
The End Is Just the Beginning: Lessons in Grieving for African Americans by Arlene Churn
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times by Pema Chodron
When Men Grieve: Why Men Grieve Differently and How You Can Help by Elizabeth Levang
Partner Loss (see also Suicide Loss)
It Must Have Been Moonglow by Phyllis Green
Planet Widow by Gloria Lenhart
The Loss of a Life Partner by Carolyn Ambler Walter
Seven Choices: Finding Daylight After Loss Shatters Your World by Elizabeth Harper Neeld
Lesbian Widows: Invisible Grief by Victoria Whipple
Hannah’s Gift: Lessons from a Life Fully Lived by Maria Housden
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Partnered Grief: When Gay and Lesbian Partners Grieve by Harold Ivan Smith (Author), Joy Johnson (Author) and Janet Sieff (Editor)
Grief Observed by CS Lewis
Swallowed by a Snake: The Gift of the Masculine Side of Healing By Thomas Golden
Leaning into Love: A Spiritual Journey through Grief by Elaine Mansfield
Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road by Neil Peart
Parent Loss (see also Children’s Grief and Suicide Loss)
To Begin Again by Naomi Levy
Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss by Hope Edelman
Healing the Adult Child’s Grieving Heart – 100 Practical Ideas after a Parent Dies by Alan Wolfelt
Losing A Parent by Alexandra Kennedy
Grieving the Death of a Mother and On Grieving the Death of a Father – Harold Ivan Smith
Goodbye, Mama by Susan A. Lewis
Always Too Soon by Allison Gilbert (a collection of interviews).
One Woman’s Journey: Recovering from Grief by Ruth Foreman
Pet Loss
When a Pet Dies by Fred Rogers (for children)
I’ll Always Love You by Hans Wilhelm (for children)
Dog Heaven by Cynthia Rylant (for children)
My Pet Remembrance Journal by Enid Traisman
The Pet Loss Companion: Healing Advice from Family Therapists Who Lead Pet Loss Groups by Ken Dolan-Del Vecchio and Nancy Saxton-Lopez
The Loss of a Pet by Wallace Sife
Sibling Loss (see also Suicide Loss)
The Empty Room: Understanding Sibling Loss by Elizabeth DeVita Raeburn
Beyond Tears: Living After Losing a Child – written by nine mothers (latest edition has added chapters on sibling survivors)
Children Are Not Paper Dolls by Erin Linn Levy
Coping With the Death of a Brother or Sister by Ruth Ann Ruiz
For Those Who Live: Helping Children Cope with the Death of a Brother or Sister by Kathy LaTour
In the Shadow of Illness by Myra Bluebond-Langner
An Intimate Loneliness: Supporting Bereaved Parents and Siblings by Pam Dawson
The Lone Twin: Understanding Twin Bereavement and Loss by Joan Woodward
The Loving Tree by Patricia Moran Kennedy
Recovering from the Loss of a Sibling by Katherine Fair Donnelly
Shadows in the Sun: The Experiences of Sibling Bereavement in Childhood by Betty Davies
S.O.S. Sorrow of Siblings by Parents of Murdered Children
Suicide Loss
Dying to be Free: A Healing Guide for Families after a Suicide by Beverly Cobain Beverly and Jean Larch
Understanding Your Suicide Grief by Alan Wolfelt
No Time to Say Goodbye: Surviving the Suicide of A Loved One by Carla Fine
Grief After Suicide: Understanding the Consequences and Caring for the Survivors (Series in Death, Dying, and Bereavement)
The Unique Grief of Suicide: Questions and Hope By Tom Smith
My Son . . . My Son . . .: A Guide to Healing After Death, Loss, or Suicide By Iris Bolton
After a Parent’s Suicide: Helping Children Heal By Margo Requarth
History of a Suicide: My Sister’s Unfinished Life By Jill Bialosky
Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide By Kay Redfield Jamison
After Suicide: A Ray Of Hope For Those Left Behind By E. Betsy Ross, Eleanora Betsy Ross
Finding Peace Without All The Pieces: After a Loved One’s Suicide By LaRita Archibald
The Suicide Index: Putting My Father’s Death in Order By Joan Wickersham
Half in Love: Surviving the Legacy of Suicide By Linda Gray Sexton
Leaving the Hall Light On: A Mother’s Memoir of Living with Her Son’s Bipolar Disorder by Madeline Sharples
Surviving Mom By Sarah Bloch
Without Tim: A Son’s Fall to Suicide, A Mother’s Rise from Grief By Lisa Schenke
Why Whisper?: A Memoir By Joanne Mazzotta
Trauma for Adults and Children on Grief After a Homicide
A Grief like No Other: Surviving the Violent Death of Someone you Love, Kathleen O’Hara
The author shares her personal account of the murder of her college-age son and offers practical steps and stages for healing and overcoming grief following a violent death.
Breaking the Silence: A Guide to Help Children with Complicated Grief… Linda Goldman
This book provides specific ideas and techniques to work with children in various areas of complicated grief.
Coping With Traumatic Death: Homicide, Bob Baugher & Lew Cox,
This book was devised to help you understand some of what to expect following the murder of a family member or friend. It’s divided into sections – the first days, the first weeks, the first months, the first year and beyond.
The Forgiving Place: Choosing Peace after Violent Trauma, Richard R. Grayton & Amrianne Williams
The author’s wife was murdered in their home during a robbery. This book concentrates on handling the emotional legacy of intentional violence.
Homicide Survivors: Misunderstood Grievers, Judie A. Bucholz, PhD
This book is about families have faced murder and how they’ve dealt with the trauma of their loss.
No Time for Goodbyes: Coping with Sorrow, Anger and Injustice after a Tragic Death, Janice Harris Lord
This book offers understanding and insight into violent death. Includes comments from survivors and offers practical information with legal and financial issues.
Retelling Violent Death, Edward K. Rynearson
Offers a strategy for therapeutic retelling following the homicide, suicide or accidental death of a loved one.
Bill Jenkins, What to Do When the Police Leave: A Guide to the First Days of Traumatic Loss
A book filled with factual guidance vital to families suffering a traumatic loss.
Bonnie Hunt Conrad, When a Child Has Been Murdered: Ways You Can Help the Grieving Parents
A resource for those suffering the homicide of a child supporting an adult whose child has been murdered.
When Father Kills Mother: Guiding Children through Trauma and Grief
by Jean Harris-Hendricks, Dora Black & Tony Kaplan, This second edition book shares information about the effects of psychological trauma and bereavement on children who have experienced the death of one parent at the hands of the other.
WEBSITES FOR GRIEF RESOURCES
Grieving.com
Grieving.com is a forum that has wide-ranging content designed to help those grieving with content tailored for the loss of a parent, child, partner, and even family and friends. They also focus on event-specific loss, along with issues in general.
Crisis Care Network
Crisis Care Network is a support group centered around getting individuals back to work following a crisis, specifically death of a loved one. With their extensive resources, they help analyze morale, compensation, and more.
Open to Hope
Open to Hope is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people find hope after loss. They provide encouraging articles, books, and an online community to help people deal with difficult losses and continue to live happy, meaningful lives while working through grief.
Young children and their “resilience” can sometimes be overstated—they grieve, too—so it’s useful to provide ways for them to talk and identify outlets for their questions and sorrow. See this video produced by Sesame Street for communication ideas that can help families with bereaved children, and additional information is available for the children of US military service men and women who died as the result of combat or a traumatic or stress-related injury.
Association of Death Education & Counseling (ADEC)
The Association of Death Education & Counseling (ADEC) is made up of over 2,000 members and includes mental and physical health professionals, along with educators, members of the church, funeral directors and much more. They host conferences, courses, workshops, as well as certifications.
The National Alliance for Grieving Children
The National Alliance for Grieving Children understands the unique challenges that children face when losing someone close to them and the organization has created wide-ranging educational resources for those looking to provide comfort to them. Through the comprehensive network of volunteers, the NAGC has done an incredible job of assisting children with loss.
Resources for Survivors of Suicide
Resources for Survivors of Suicide emphasizes that individuals are not alone upon losing a loved one to suicide. With tools specifically geared toward military spouses and interactive online support, they’re thorough in the application of grief support.
The Rainbow Babies
Death is a normal part of life, but that doesn’t make it easy to deal with. Those who have lost loved ones can encounter any number of hardships, including a complicated grieving process, and a lack of understanding from friends and family. GLBT families have an added difficulty, as bereaved gay or lesbian partners are often not given the same recognition and support as heterosexual widows and widowers.
TAPS—Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, Inc.
TAPS–Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, Inc. helps families who have lost a military member. They’ve assisted over 40,000 family members by providing peer-based emotional support for anyone grieving a military death.
Center For Loss & Life Transition
The Center for Loss & Life Transition has material that allows those grieving, as well as those supporting them, to have all the right direction to overcome the grief and lead productive lives. The center was founded over 20 years ago and champions an approach of “companioning”, instead of “treating”.
Hello Grief
Comfort Zone Camp, Inc. developed HelloGrief.org to start a discussion about the impact of loss, and how to help grieving persons cope; as well as build a community of support for those living with grief.
Association of Death Education & Counseling (ADEC)
The Association of Death Education & Counseling (ADEC) is made up of over 2,000 members and includes mental and physical health professionals, along with educators, members of the church, funeral directors and much more. They host conferences, courses, workshops, as well as certifications.
National Caregivers Library The National Caregivers Library is one of the most extensive online libraries for caregivers that exists today
Scholastic children’s grief resources Scholastic Children’s Grief Resources is an integral page for helping children who are experiencing grief and the various implications associated with the passing of a loved one. The content on the site illustrates how teachers can help, as well as advice on informing students.
The Grief Recovery Method
The Grief Recovery Method has been thoroughly developed at the Grief Recovery Institute over the last 30 years and has established itself as a reputable source of information on how to overcome grief. The site features a great blog, but also interesting articles that are incredibly informative.
Unspoken Grief
Unspoken Grief aims to address issues less talked about concerning miscarriages, stillbirths, & neonatal loss. Since these issues often go unrecognized, the site has been crucial in confronting these topics.
Center for Loss and Trauma The Center for Loss and Trauma works with individuals to give them the empowerment tools to aptly address grief and loss. By helping foster a community where they can connect and discuss pressing issues, the center has helped people overcome their grief and continue to move forward.
Widowed Village
Connects peers with each other for friendship and sharing. The moderators, administrators, and others involved in running this site are not professionals.
NAHNA National Association for Nursing Home Attorneys. The Page Dedicated to Dealing With Death, Grief, and Bereavement
HOSPICE & PALLIATIVE CARE
National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
Showing the world that hospice is about more than care for the dying. Hospice and palliative care can make more meaningful moments possible.
International Association for Hospice & Palliative Care
Providing education about palliative care and hospice in the developing world. Includes an international newsletter, palliative care bibliography, and links.
American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine
Professional organization for physicians taking care of people at the end of life.
Palliative Doctors
Learn the answers to some of the most common questions about hospice and palliative care.
Hospice of the Valley: Hospice, Palliative Care, Counseling (Hospice services for those facing end of life issues and support for their families. Located in San Jose, CA.
Pathways – Home Health, Hospice & Private Duty
Pathways family of services has been bringing healthcare to people, wherever they live, for 38 years. Located in the Bay Area.
Centre for Living with Dying
The Centre for Living with Dying serves children, adolescents, and adults who are dealing with grief and loss. The Centre also provides crisis intervention services and broad-based educational programs on grief and loss. Whether clients choose individual counseling or grief groups.
Kara
Kara offers a safe and caring environment where those coping with death and dying can express and normalize their feelings of grief.
Zen Hospice Project
Zen Hospice Project is changing the experience of dying through a human- centered model of care.
PODCASTS & VIDEOS ON DEATH, DYING & GRIEF
TED TALKS
Amanda Bennett’s We need a heroic narrative for death
Amanda Bennett and her husband were passionate and full of life all throughout their lives together — and up until the final days, too. Bennett gives a sweet yet powerful talk on why, for the loved ones of the dying, having hope for a happy ending shouldn’t warrant a diagnosis of “denial.” She calls for a more heroic narrative for death — to match the ones we have in life.
Candy Chang’s Before I die I want to…
In her New Orleans neighborhood, artist and TED Fellow Candy Chang turned an abandoned house into a giant chalkboard asking a fill-in-the-blank question: “Before I die I want to ___.” Her neighbors’ answers — surprising, poignant, funny — became an unexpected mirror for the community. (What’s your answer?)
Elaine Mansfield’s Good Grief! What I Learned From Loss
There is power in grieving intentionally and purposefully. Telling her own story of loss, Elaine Mansfield explains the use of ritual as a tool for empowerment for life’s most challenging times. She leaves the audience with three truths — 1. I am not in charge. 2. Love and grief are a package deal! 3. Ritual offers solace and healing.
Nancy Berns’ Beyond Closure
Nancy Berns is a sociologist at Drake University. She looks at the space between grief and closure and has found that not only is closure a fabricated concept, it is doing us more harm than good.
FILMS ABOUT DEATH, DYING & GRIEF
Three Colors: Blue
For Adults
Amour
An elderly man looks after his wife after a stroke and finds that he just cannot cope.
I Will Follow
I WILL FOLLOW is a film about letting go, and about the surprising thirst for life we experience after the death of someone we love.
Aftershock
2010 epic Chinese film revolves around a devastating earthquake where a mother believed for decades her daughter had died.
Biutiful
Uxbal, a career criminal, plies his trade in Barcelona’s underground sweatshops and back alleys. Unlike his associates, he has some respect for the poor workers under his thumb and is a devoted father. Told that he is ill and has just a few months to live, Uxbal tries to get his affairs in order before the spirits, with whom he communes, come to claim him.
The Wind Will Carry Us
Film crew travels to remote village to document a death ritual. Once in the village, however, they find the deathly ill woman has not perished yet and so they settle in and wait. Each day they enquire about the old woman’s health and each day the news is different. The focus is on one member of the crew and how he slowly acclimates himself to the villagers, to nature, and to time as he waits for an event that may or may not occur.
Monster’s Ball
Set in the Southern United States, ‘Monster’s Ball’ is a tale of a racist white man, Hank, who falls in love with a black woman named Leticia. Ironically Hank is a prison guard working on Death Row who executed Leticia’s husband. Hank and Leticia’s interracial affair leads to confusion and new ideas for the two unlikely lovers.
Ordinary People
The accidental death of the older son of an affluent family deeply strains the relationships among the bitter mother, the good-natured father, and the guilt-ridden younger son.
In the Bedroom
In idyllic Mid-Coast Maine, the Fowler family’s only son Frank comes home from his freshman year at college for summer vacation and dates Natalie. However, her jilted husband causes them all problems until an unthinkable tragedy shakes the community to its very core.
Ponette
An extremely captivating movie on how a little girl copes with her mother’s death. She withdraws from all the people around her, waiting for her mother to come back.
What Dreams May Come
After the death of their two children, Dr. Chris Nielson and his wife Annie find continuing their lives fraught with difficulties, especially for Annie. When Chris dies and goes to Heaven he meets Albert and discovers that Heaven is even more wondrous than anything he could have imagined. However, Chris’s death is the last straw for Annie and in her madness commits suicide and journeys to a place very different from Chris. On discovering Annie’s misfortune, Chris forces Albert to enlist the help of The Tracker and together they journey into the depths of despair to discover the destiny of Annie’s soul and attempt a rescue.
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
In 2001, Andrew Bagby, a medical resident, is murdered not long after breaking up with his girlfriend. Soon after, when she announces she’s pregnant, one of Andrew’s many close friends, Kurt Kuenne, begins this film, a gift to the child.
The Sweet Hereafter
A small community is torn apart by a tragic accident which kills most of the town’s children. A lawyer visits the victims’ parents in order to profit from the tragedy by stirring up their anger and launching a class action suit against anyone they can blame. The community is paralyzed by its anger and cannot let go. All but one young girl, left in a wheelchair after the accident, finds the courage to lead the way toward healing.
Three Colors: Blue
Julie (Juliette Binoche) is haunted by her grief after living through a tragic auto wreck that claimed the life of her composer husband and young daughter.
Angels in America
Award winning playwright Tony Kushner adapts his political epic about the AIDS crisis during the mid-eighties, around a group of separate but connected individuals all dealing with grief, loss and redemption.
Harold and Maude
A cult classic, young, rich, and obsessed with death, Harold finds himself changed forever when he meets lively septuagenarian Maude at a funeral and falls in love with her and life again.
The Hours
The story of how the novel “Mrs. Dalloway” affects three generations of women, all of whom, in one way or another, have had to deal with suicide in their lives.
The Broken Circle Breakdown
Elise and Didier fall in love at first sight, in spite of their differences. He talks, she listens. He’s a romantic atheist, she’s a religious realist. When their daughter becomes seriously ill, their love is put on trial.
The Lovely Bones
A 14-year-old girl in suburban 1970’s Pennsylvania is murdered by her neighbor. She tells the story from the place between Heaven and Earth, showing the lives of the people around her and how they have changed all while attempting to get someone to find her lost body.
Still Walking
Still Walking is a family drama about grown children visiting their elderly parents, which unfolds over one summer day. They have gathered to commemorate the tragic death of the eldest son, who drowned in an accident fifteen years ago. Although the roomy house is as comforting and unchanging as the mother’s homemade feast, everyone in the family has subtly changed.
Jacob’s Ladder
A surrealistic film, it tells the story of a young postal worker who is having increasingly difficulties adjusting to life after a tour of duty in Vietnam where he was unwittingly used as the subject of a drug experiment. Once he returns, the death of his young son starts to drive him mad.
Philadelphia
When a man dying from AIDS is fired by his law firm because of his condition, he hires a homophobic small time lawyer as the only willing advocate for a wrongful dismissal suit.
Seven Pounds
This movie about death tells the story of an IRS agent on a mysterious journey to help seven random people in a measure of atonement over an accident he feels he is solely responsible for.
Dead Man Walking
This Oscar-winning movie (Best Actress for Susan Sarandon) tells the story of a real-life nun named Helen Prejean and how she attempts to help the family of a murdered girl as well as the man who is on death row for the crime.
Mystic River
In the summer of 1975 in a neighborhood in Boston, three kids, Dave Boyle and two of his friends, Jimmy and Sean, are playing on the sidewalk when Dave gets abducted by two men and endures several days of sexual abuse. Eventually, Dave escapes traumatized throughout adulthood. Jimmy is an ex-con and a father of three, whose daughter Katie, is found dead and Dave becomes the number one suspect.
The Descendants
Total immersion into the complex, fraught emotional terrain as a wife and mother lays dying.
21 Grams
A tragic car accident sets the tone for this film’s action and creates a connection between the three main characters. Cristina Peck is an ex-junkie and a mother grieving over her daughter and husband’s deaths in the accident. Jack Jordan is an ex-con who found redemption in religion and is the perpetrator of the accident. Paul Rivers is a dying college professor who desperately needs a heart transplant.
Fruitvale Station
The last day in the life of Oscar Grant, this powerful film portrays the human side of tragedy and how its rippling affects can transform an entire community.
The Kite Runner
In the 70’s in Afghanistan, the Pushtun boy Amir and the Hazara boy Hassan, who is his loyal friend and son of their Hazara servant Ali, are raised together in Amir’s father house, playing and kitting on the streets of a peaceful Kabul. Amir feels that his wise and good father Baba blames him for the death of his mother in the delivery, and also that his father loves and prefers Hassan to him.
My Life
Life is going well for Bob Jones: great job, beautiful loving wife and a baby on the way. Then he finds out that he has kidney cancer that will leave him dead within months. He sets out to videotape his life’s acquired wisdom for his child, and ends up on a voyage of self-discovery and reconciliation.
For Children
Finding Nemo
Up
Widowed Carl Fredrickson meets 8-year-old boy named Russell, who’s trying to get an Assisting the Elderly badge. Together, they embark on an adventure, where they encounter talking dogs, an evil villain and a rare bird named Kevin.
The Fault in Our Stars
Two teenage cancer patients begin a life-affirming journey to visit a reclusive author in Amsterdam.
Charlotte’s Web
Based on the beloved children’s novel by E.B. White, a young girl named Fern rescues a runty piglet, raises it as her own and names him Wilbur. However, after Wilbur grows into a pig, she is compelled to sell him to her Uncle Homer Zuckerman down the street. At Zuckerman’s barn, Wilbur meets a host of animals and later learns from them that come winter, he will be slaughtered for food. Fearing for his life, Charlotte, a gentle and wise spider whom befriended the lonely Wilbur, vows to save his life.
Finding Nemo
A widowed clownfish chases his son halfway around the world.
The Lion King
Following the death of his father, Simba, the cub who will be king, goes into exile.
Fly Away Home
Following the death of her mother, a young girl bonds with her estranged father by learning to fly with geese.
Corrina, Corrina
Stylish and well-educated Corrina is clearly overqualified for her domestic job. But she needs the work, so she signs on with the grieving Singer family and finds herself drawn both to troubled little Molly whose grief turns her mute and to Manny, Molly’s lonely father.
Hugo
Based on the graphic novel, two orphans solve a mystery in 1931 train station.
Documentaries
Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die
Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die is a 2011 one-off television documentary produced by KEO North for BBC Scotland on the subject of assisted suicide, directed and produced by Charlie Russell.
The Suicide Tourist
Two couples travel to Switzerland to take advantage of that country’s assisted suicide law.
On Our Own Terms: Moyers on Dying
Bill Moyers goes from the bedsides of the dying to the front lines of a movement to improve end-of-life.
Time of Death (series)
Time of Death offers an unflinching, intimate look at remarkable people facing their own mortality.
Gates Of Heaven
As each of the people in the film talk about the pets they’ve lost or the business of burying them, it’s soon apparent that what they’re really talking about are their views in general concerning life, death and the afterlife. One woman soon breaks away from talk of her pet into a beautiful monologue about her youth and the descendants she has now. Which dovetails nicely into another man’s speculation that, for some people, pets are substitutes for children or grandchildren. So much of life is seeking love, and we’ll find it in other creatures if we have to.
The Bridge
Almost every single person who has survived jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge has said that they regretted their decision the moment they let go. That horrible fact lodges itself in the mind during this movie, which captures 23 of the 24 known suicides that took place on the Bridge during 2004.
How to Die in Oregon
Oregon was the first state to legalize physician-assisted suicide (and to date is one of just five states to do so). With the law no longer acting as a barrier to euthanasia, How to Die in Oregon examines how a new culture around dying and dealing with terminal illness develops.
Television
Time of Death (documentary series)
Time of Death offers an unflinching, intimate look at remarkable people facing their own mortality.
Six Feet Under (series)
Laced with irony and dark situational humor, the show approaches the subject of death through the eyes of the Fisher family, who owns and operates a funeral home in Los Angeles. Peter Krause stars as Nate, who reluctantly becomes a partner in the funeral home after his father’s death.
The Revenants (series)
In a small Alpine village, a group of men, women and children is in a state of confusion as they try to return to their homes after years of being away. What they don’t know is that no one is expecting their arrival because they have been dead for several years. Upon returning, they realize that their friends and family have moved on to the next stages of their lives since the now-returning souls passed on.
The Leftovers (series)
In a global cataclysm, “The Sudden Departure,” 140 million people disappeared without a trace. Three years later, residents of Mapleton, N.Y., try to maintain equilibrium when the notion of “normal” no longer applies. Intense grief has divided families and turned faith to cynicism, paranoia and madness.
ARTICLES
A New Vision for Dreams of the Dying – The New York Times
Feb 2, 2016 – For thousands of years, the dreams and visions of the dying have captivated cultures, which imbued them with sacred import.
New Ways to Think About Grief –TIME
The five stages of grief are so deeply embedded in our culture that they’ve become virtually inescapable. Every time we experience loss — whether personal or national — we hear them recited: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. They’re invoked to explain our emotional reaction to everything from the death of a loved one to the destruction of the Gulf of Mexico after the BP oil spill to LeBron James’ abandoning the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat.