How do you cope with a loved one’s impending death? If you’re filmmaker Kirsten Johnson (Citizenfour, The Path), you make a movie about it.
Her new documentary Dick Johnson is Dead follows Johnson and her 86-year-old father, Dick, as they stage different ways he could die, and commit them all to film. As Dick’s dementia progresses, they film him falling down the stairs, getting into a car accident, and even arriving in heaven.
Speaking about her inspiration for the film, Johnson said that she “dreamt there was a man in a casket and he sat up and said, ‘I’m Dick Johnson and I’m not dead yet.’” (She also noted that the Jackass films were a source of inspiration for the movie.)
The trailer also includes Johnson and her father staging his funeral, in addition to a glimpse at the pair dealing with his memory loss rather than remaining solely in the realm of fantasy.
The film will hit Netflix on Oct. 2.
