PIFF 2011: Living, dying and choosing

Cody Curtis on the Oregon coast with daughter Jill

Got up early Sunday for a 9:30 am screening of "How to Die in Oregon," a documentary film that was all I hoped it would be.

Directed and shot over four years by Peter Richardson, it's an intimate look at fellow Oregonians who've considered ending their life under the guidelines of Oregon's Death with Dignity Act. Oregon voters passed the landmark act in 1997, only to have it challenged by the Bush adminstration but ultimately upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Only one other state, Washington, has followed suit, though a handful of state legislatures are considering similar legislation.

The film introduces us to a handful of individuals with terminal illnesses who've obtained a doctor's prescription to receive a lethal dose of narcotics. Each has a choice to end their life in the face of mounting pain and suffering. Or not.

Much of the film is devoted to Cody Curtis, a 54-year-old mother from Portland, who seems utterly blessed to have such a supportive husband, son and daughter, as well a conscientious oncologist. She makes for a compelling subject -- not just because she is pretty, relentlessly upbeat and initially appears to be healthy but, more importantly, because she is spot-on in articulating so many of the questions that one would expect to raise if, heaven forbid, we were in the same position.

How is physician-assisted death different from suicide or euthanasia?Should anyone other than the patient have a say in ending life?
Should the patient have the right to change his or her mind?
Is it courageous to needlessly endure pain?
Is it possible to make things right before you die? (Such as mending relationships with family...)

Cody has a serious liver disease and only months to live. But as months pass and her symptoms seem to stabilize, she wonders if she's beaten the disease. She gardens, she gives away jewelry to her daughter, she begins to look forward to the end-of-year holidays. But then reality sets in.

We see her struggle and we hear her struggle, gasping for breath and wincing at the pain of fluids and bile that have built up in her stomach. We root for her as she lays in bed in the final days, even then cheerfully helping her son with a cookie recipe.

Watching a person die is sobering stuff. Watching a person take charge of her destiny is inspiring. Watching a person, an ordinary citizen whose husband died from brain cancer, jump into the political fray and give he all lobbying for a Washington state initiative that passed in 2008 is downright thrilling.

The latter would be Nancy Niedzielski, who was in the audience Sunday and who came up afterwards to stand alongside the director, Richardson, to field questions from the audience.

Sophie Harris

Also in the audience: Sophie Harris, a family friend who served as associate producer, shooting and editing film.

"How to Die in Oregon" won the Sundance Film Festival Documentary Grand Jury Prize Award in January. It played three times at the Portland International Film Festival and is scheduled to be shown at a few more festivals before making its way to HBO in August or September. It's Oscar-worthy, though shockingly it wasn't nominated, and a film not to be missed.

Photo of Cody and Jill Curtis: www.imdb.com