EXIT MUSIC - an imaginative, soul-searching encounter with the end of life - is a rare invitation into the world of a young artist dying of cystic fibrosis as he and his father navigate the ominous, sacred, and unmapped journey at the end of life.
Co-presented by Rooftop Films, join us for an unforgettable screening of the new documentary film EXIT MUSIC by Emmy-nominated filmmaker Cameron Mullenneaux. With stunning access, EXIT MUSIC closely follows 28-year-old Ethan Rice's final months, weeks, days and hours and is witness to death’s transformative influence on his family.

Home video footage trace the bond between Ethan and his father Ed, a Vietnam veteran with PTSD who withdrew from the world to become a stay-at-home dad. Ed immersed Ethan in a world of art, creativity, and imagination and documented it all on camera, a hobby that provided relief from the fear of his son’s ominous prognosis and his own painful past. Interweaving home movies with Ethan’s original music and animation, his story is an unflinching meditation on loss and invites the viewer to experience Ethan’s transition from reality to memory. In a culture that often looks away from death, Exit Music demystifies the dying process a universal cornerstone of the human experience.

After the film, we are pleased to have Kimberly C. Paul, host of the podcast Death by Design and author of Bridging the Gap, moderate a discussion with the film director, palliative care physician Dawn Gross, and special guests from the film. Read the film review in Variety.

For the first time, host Kimberly C. Paul, will record the Death by Design podcast with a panel of experts, creatives, and caregivers in front of a LIVE audience.
Death by Design desires to empower the audience to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime experience as they direct the conversation towards how we can radically embrace the end of life and our own death. In celebration of NYC Reimagine 2018, W83 Ministry Center and Death by Design Podcast are collaborating to bring a panel of end-of-life experts, grief educators, artists, caregivers, and authors together in front a live audience for the first time. This amazing event will provide New Yorkers, attendees of the Reimagine End of Life Festival, as well as those deeply interested in learning how to live well and die well in a society that believes death is optional. Through this panel of experienced professional and artists, the audience will be able to ask questions and have open conversations about how each of us can reimagine end of life and live well until our last days.

The panel will include:

- Dr. Dawn Gross, San Francisco Palliative Care Physician

- Elizabeth Coplan, Playwright and Producer of Grief Dialogues

- MK Czerwiec, RN, MA & Artist

- Kimberly St. John, London Palliative Care Nurse

- Sue Kemple, My Last Soundtrack

- Henry Fersko-Weiss, Creator and Founder of INEDLA

- Linda Campanella, Author & Caregiver

- Andrew McPherson, Principal at Healthsperien (a Washington, D.C.-based consulting and legal services firm with expertise in policy and legislative strategy with a special emphasis on those related to advanced illness and end-of-life care) and Senior Policy Advisor to the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC)

- Sarah Jansen, Founder of My Care Paths

And YOU… the audience!