U.S. DOCUMENTARY SPECIAL JURY AWARD - Sundance Film Festival
Disability • Ableism • Assisted Dying • Healthcare • Poverty
Date of Completion: 2025 | Run Time: 99 minutes | Language: English with Audio Description available | Captions: Yes | Includes: Transcript | Director: Reid Davenport | Producer: Colleen Cassingham
LIFE AFTER is a gripping investigative documentary that exposes the tangled web of moral dilemmas and profit motives surrounding assisted dying. Disabled filmmaker Reid Davenport uncovers shocking abuses of power while amplifying the voices of the disability community fighting for justice and dignity in an unfolding matter of life and death.
In 1983, a disabled Californian woman named Elizabeth Bouvia sought the “right to die,” igniting a national debate about autonomy and the value of disabled lives. After years of courtroom battles, Bouvia vanished from public view. Sundance-winner Davenport embarks on a personal investigation to find out what really happened to Bouvia and reveal why her story is disturbingly relevant today.
LIFE AFTER brings together the missing voices of the disability community in the ongoing debate about assisted dying, uncovering chilling stories of disabled people dying prematurely. Davenport exposes the intersection of systemic failures and personal autonomy, challenging the idea that assisted dying always represents a free choice, when it can sometimes be seen as the only option.
Variety | Murtada Elfadl
“Engrossing, moving, and most importantly, confrontational”
Indiewire | Esther Zuckerman
“Passionate and persuasive…upends expectations”
The New Yorker | Richard Brody
"Among the most surprising, insightful, moving, and politically far-reaching docs I’ve seen in a long while"
Unseen Films
“Going to rock your world”
In Between Drafts | Jon Negroni
“Unspools like a thriller"
USA Today | Cory Woodroof
“Cinematic rigor and full-hearted empathy”
AWARDS
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award | Sundance Film Festival
Director of I DIDN'T SEE YOU THERE and LIFE AFTER
Reid Davenport makes documentaries about disability from an overtly political perspective. Reid’s first two feature films, Life After (2025) and I Didn’t See You There (2022), both premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and respectively won a Special Jury Award and the Directing Award. Variety called Life After “engrossing, moving, and most importantly, confrontational,” while Indiewire said it was “passionate and persuasive… upends expectations.” Nick Allen of Roger Ebert described I Didn’t See You There as “first-person poetry in captivating motion, expressed with a singular, assured artistic voice,” while Vox called it a “must-see.”
I Didn’t See You There won the True Than Fiction Award at the 2023 Independent Spirit Awards and was broadcast nationally on PBS’s syndicated series POV. Life After is slated to air on PBS’s syndicated series Independent Lens later this year and currently has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.