Let's #DoDeathDifferently
Zen & the Art of Dying’s central subject Zenith Virago and associate producer Debra Beattie
Thanks to Ian Curr for this great interview with Zen & the Art of Dying’s central subject Zenith Virago and associate producer Debra Beattie on his Brisbane 4zzz FM 102.1 radio show The Paradigm Shift! Listen here.
Thanks to Marie Scarles for this great interview with Zenith Virago in Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Zen & the Art of Dying is out in theaters now in AU and NZ and we’re gearing up for the global digital release October 8th! Read the full article here.
As we roll out the theatrical release of Zen & the Art of Dying in AU & NZ, thanks to Mitchell Foy for this great interview with Zenith Virago on Over the Rainbow BAYFM 99.9
Listen to the full interview here.
Full schedule of the film’s theatrical screening dates accessible here.
Let’s #DoDeathDifferently!
Thanks to host Bryan Crump for the lovely interview with Zenith Virago on Nights on RNZ National on the eve of the film’s release in New Zealand. Listen here.
The film is playing at the Academy Cinema – Auckland, NZ; Waiheke Community Cinema – Waiheke Island, NZ; Gecko Theatre – Motueka, NZ; and one screening 5 PM Oct. 2 at the Rialto Tauranga Cinemas – Tauranga, NZ
Full details and schedule of the theatrical release here.
Thanks to Rhea Goodman for having director Broderick Fox on her KSFR Santa Fe Public Radio show Living Juicy! along with RN, Hospice Nurse, and Dying: A Natural Passage author Denys Cope to talk about Zen & the Art of Dying and how we can all #DoDeathDifferently! Listen to the show here.
Thanks to Kilian Melloy of Edge Media Network for his thoughtful and in-depth article on Zen & the Art of Dying in advance of our Jan. 14, 2016 Morbid Anatomy Museum screening. Melloy writes:
Openly gay documentary filmmaker Broderick Fox goes places others might not wish to venture, and does it with heart and grace. An early short documentary examined his brush with body dysmorphia (anorexia and compulsive exercise); his first full-length documentary, “The Skin I’m In,” featured at film festivals around the country a couple of years ago, examined Fox’s own experiences with addiction and alcoholism.
Now Fox follows up with “Zen and the Art of Dying,” a project that took him to Australia to meet and film Zenith Virago, a self-trained “deathwalker” who has made a profession of helping people — sick and well, young and old — think about and prepare for the eventuality of shuffling off this mortal coil. Read full article
We’re just back from the Santa Fe Film Festival, where Zen & the Art of Dying received a powerful reception from audiences and a great post-screening Q&A hosted by Dr. Phillip Retzky, LCSW. The Santa Fe community is leading the way with natural death care possibilities with a range of schools and organizations including the Upaya Zen Center, the Academy for the Love of Learning and Southwestern College are all regularly offering death care courses and events. While in Santa Fe, Fox was a featured guest on KSFR 101.1 Santa Fe Public Radio’s Living From Happiness with Dr. Melanie Harth (listen here). #DoDeathDifferently
Zen & the Art of Dying director Broderick Fox and executive producer Lee Biolos at the Santa Fe Film Festival.
This fall, Zen & the Art of Dying has been the subject of two different Podcasts!
Give a listen to the conversation between the documentary’s central subject Zenith Virago and Austin’s Palliative Care and Death Care specialist Deanna F. Cochran on Deanna’s podcast THE JOURNEY, recorded in advance of our November Austin Film Festival Screenings.
Also check out the conversation between director Broderick Fox and Nicholas Snow on THE NICHOLAS SNOW SHOW, recorded just after the film’s screening at Cinema Diverse: The Palm Springs LGBTQ Festival in September.
Zen & the Art of Dying had its World Premiere on March 14, 2015 as the Closing Night Gala film of the 2015 Byron Bay International Film Festival. As Byron is the community the film documents, it was a sell-out crowd with all the film’s participants in attendance. Zenith Virago, the film’s central subject, chose to wait and watch the film for the first time surrounded by the community she serves, which was both exciting and nerve-wracking for filmmaker Broderick Fox and producer Lee Biolos, but as the pictures below attest, they could not have imagined a more heartfelt response from Virago and the community. Fox gave special thanks to the Byron Bay International Film Festival for their continued support and for being a part of the film’s genesis: he met Virago at the Byron Bay International Film Festival’s world premiere of his last feature documentary The Skin I’m In back in 2012.
The film received a range of press coverage, including a great review by Giuliana Cincotta for Film Ink, and Fox was a featured radio guest on Bay FM’s The Elephant Room with Nyck Jeanes.
Thanks to Lyn McCarthy/Niche Pictures for capturing these great shots of the premiere!
Producer Lee Biolos, Zenith Virago, and director Broderick Fox at the Zen & the Art of Dying Premiere. Photo by Lyn McCarthy/Niche Pictures.
Zenith Virago in front of a sold-out crowd at the Zen & the Art of Dying Premiere. Photo by Lyn McCarthy/Niche Pictures.
Two thumbs up from Zenith Virago at the Zen & the Art of Dying Premiere with director Broderick Fox and producer Lee Biolos Photo by Lyn McCarthy/Niche Pictures.
