Flight from Death

Infobox_Film
name =Flight from Death



caption =Theatrical poster for Flight from Death
imdb_id =0365215


writer = Greg Bennick
Patrick Shen
narration = Gabriel Bryne
director = Patrick Shen
producer = Patrick Shen
Greg Bennick
released = September 6 2006
runtime = 89 min.
language = English

Directed by Patrick Shen, and narrated by Gabriel Byrne, Flight from Death is a documentary that investigates the relationship of human violence to fear of death, as related to subconscious influences. The film describes death anxiety as a possible root cause of many human behaviors on a psychological, spiritual, and cultural level.

"Flight from Death" is a seven-time Best Documentary award-winning film.

Summary

The film's purpose is to investigate humankind's relationship with death, and is heavily influenced by the views of cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker. In addition to interviews with a number of contemporary philosophers, psychiatrists and teachers such as Sam Keen, Robert J. Lifton, Irvin Yalom, Merlyn Mowrey and Daniel Liechty, the film introduces the viewer to a group of social psychologists, who conduct research in support of what they call Terror Management Theory (terror in this case not being terrorism, but rather emotional and psychological reaction to mortality awareness). Over the last twenty-five years, proponents of terror management theory have conducted over 300 laboratory studies demonstrating that subtle reminders of death on a subconscious level motivates a statistically significant number of subjects to exhibit biased and xenophobic type behaviors, such as gravitating toward those who they perceive as culturally similar to themselves and holding higher negative feelings and judgments toward those they perceive as culturally dissimilar to themselves.

tudies and research

In a recent study, the research team discovered that reminding Palestinians of their own death through subconscious means inspired conscious shifts in opinion towards wanting to become suicide bombers.Fact|date=October 2007 This subconscious death reminder inspired the subjects to act aggressively against differing others, even at the risk of losing their own lives. Terror is the result of deep psychological forces; [Citation
last1 = Hudson | first1 = Rex A
last2 =
contribution =
title = The Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism: Who Becomes A Terrorist and Why?
publisher = Federal Research Division, Library of Congress
pages = 10
year = 1999 ] the research described in "Flight from Death" suggests that these forces can be explained, yielding information about personal anxiety and the motivation of social violence.

Recognition and awards

*Beverly Hills Film Festival - Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary (2003) [Citation
last = Beverly Hills Film Festival
first =
title = 2003 Award Winners
url=http://www.beverlyhillsfilmfestival.com/2003winners.php
accessdate = 2007-10-06]
*Ohio Independent Film Festival - Best Documentary (2003) [Citation
last = Independent Pictures
first =
title = Festival's Award-winning Films Announced
url=http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/oiff-News/message/91
accessdate = 2007-10-06]
*Silver Lake Film Festival - Best Documentary (2003) [Citation
last = The New York Times Company
first =
title = Flight From Death: The Quest for Immortality (2003)
url=http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/294157/Flight-From-Death-The-Quest-for-Immortality/details
accessdate = 2007-10-06]
*Malibu Film Festival - Best Documentary (2004) [Citation
last = The Film Connection
first =
title = Flight from Death: The Quest for Immortality
url=http://www.thefilmconnection.org/filminfo.asp?id=711
accessdate = 2007-10-06]
*Northern Lights Documentary Film Festival - Best Documentary (2004)
*Northwest Film Forum - Best Documentary (2004) [Citation
last = Northwest Film Forum
first =
title = NWFF's 10th Annual Local Sightings October 4-11
url=http://www.wigglyworld.org/localsightings/history.php
accessdate = 2007-10-06]
*Rhode Island International Film Festival - Best Documentary (2004) [Citation
last = Rhode Island International Film Fesitval
first =
title = 2004 RIIFF Film Award Winners
url=http://www.film-festival.org/awardswin04.php
accessdate = 2007-10-06]

References

ee also

*Patrick Shen
*Greg Bennick
*Ernest Becker
*Robert Jay Lifton
*The Denial of Death

External links

* [http://www.flightfromdeath.com/ Official website]
*