Dying Green

Ellen Tripler's short documentary focuses on Billy Campbell—the lone doctor in a small town in the Appalachian foothills of South Carolina—whose vision for disposing of the dead is both archaic and radical. Campbell bought 38 acres in order to establish the Ramsey Creek Preserve, a place where people can be buried the old-fashioned way: unembalmed, wrapped in a shroud, and then placed six feet under with neither a casket nor a concrete grave liner to keep nature from doing its work. Cremated remains are also interred at the site, and viewers witness a funeral home director—an “alternative provider” who works with Campbell—tending a blazing furnace. Shots of other activities—digging a grave with a shovel, transporting an enshrouded body, clipping and arranging flowers at a burial site to prepare for a tiny gathering of mourners—are interspersed with observations from largely supportive townspeople, and others. While Dying Green notes that this burial practice is controversial, no naysayers are interviewed, nor does the filmmaker address some obvious questions—including how widespread this type of burial might be, and whether it's even legal—although the answers are available at greenburialcouncil.org, a website referenced in the closing credits (also, the DVD cover blurb claim that death can be used to pay for land conservation is more implied than stated in the film). Despite these caveats, however, this is a thought-provoking documentary on a little-discussed topic that also serves up a gentle profile of a caring medical professional. DVD extras include deleted scenes. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Gardner)