LETTING GO OF ZACK

The film is based on a true story told to me by friends who decided to bring their son home from the hospital to die in 1972, a time when this was not generally done. In writing the screenplay, I was guided by the Elizabeth Kübler-Ross book, On Death and Dying which challenges societal taboos around the end of life. Zack’s Father experiences Kübler-Ross’ five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

Letting Go of Zack was my thesis film as a director fellow at The Center For Advanced Film Studies at The American Film Institute. I owe a debt of gratitude to my mentor, the Czech director Jan Kadar, best known for his Academy Award winning film, A Shop On Main Street. Kadar advocated with the faculty at AFI for the acceptance and financial support of my film when the topic of the process of death and dying was not part of the cultural zeitgeist in the United States.