Oklahoma City University | Documentary Film Series Focuses on… Skip to content
Blog

Documentary Film Series Focuses on Assisted Suicide

The 15th annual Documentary Film Series at Oklahoma City University will continue at 2 p.m. April 21 with Peter Richardson’s “How to Die in Oregon.”

All screenings in the series are free to the public and will be held in the Moot Court Room in Sarkeys Law Center at N.W. 23rd Street and Kentucky Avenue. It is sponsored by the Thatcher Hoffman Smith Endowment Fund.

“How to Die in Oregon” explores the state’s physician-assisted suicide law. Oregon became the first state to legalize the practice in 1994, which allows any individual whom two physicians diagnose as having less than six months to live to request a fatal dose of barbiturate to end their

life. Since then, more than 500 Oregonians have taken their mortality into their own hands. In this acclaimed film, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, Richardson gently enters the lives of the terminally ill as they consider whether — and when — to end their lives by lethal overdose.

Richardson examines both sides of this complex, emotionally charged issue. Variety magazine called it “Aptly harrowing but inspiring as well exquisite.”

The documentary series title, “3 Measures of Time,” comes from the title of a poem by National Book Award winning poet Terrance Hayes, who gave a reading at OCU April 3.

The final film in the series will be April 28 with Robert H. Lieberman’s “They Call It Myanmar: Lifting the Curtain.”

Back to all blog
Back to Top