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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 the 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. Disabled people continue to face premature death–whether through the horrific case of Michael Hickson, who was left to die by a Texas hospital, or the heart-wrenching choice of Jerika Bolen, a Wisconsin teen who received support from her community to end her life. Davenport’s exploration takes him to Canada, where regulations surrounding Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) have been expanded to allow disabled individuals unprecedented access–even when their deaths are not reasonably foreseeable. In Ontario, Davenport meets Michal Kaliszan, a disabled computer programmer who once considered MAID as his only option to avoid entering an institution.
Image courtesy of Reuters.
Reid 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 and won awards at the Sundance Film Festival. LIFE AFTER won a Special Jury Award and I DIDN’T SEE YOU THERE won the Directing Award. LIFE AFTER was a New York Times Critic’s Pick. Richard Brody of The New Yorker said LIFE AFTER was “among the most surprising, insightful, moving, and politically far-reaching documentaries I’ve seen in a long while,” while Variety called it “engrossing, moving, and most importantly, confrontational.” LIFE AFTER premiered on PBS’s syndicated series Independent Lens in November 2025 and currently has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
I DIDN’T SEE YOU THERE won the True Than Fiction Award at the 2023 Independent Spirit Awards and was nominated for Best Documentary at the 2022 Gotham Awards. It was broadcast nationally on PBS’s syndicated series POV. 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.”
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