Review – A Certain Kind of Death

This is one of those documentaries about something that probably never occurs to most people (including me) but nonetheless turns out to be fascinating stuff. When indigent people die with no surviving kin, the coroner’s office ends up dealing with them. With no relatives or other beneficiaries to object, the film-makers follow along for every step in the process from discovery of the body to mass burial of the cremated remains. Further, the production is put together without the Morris-esque frills that seem to infect so many documentaries. No fancy re-enactments. No Phillip Glass soundtrack. Just straightforward documentation. The result is intensely sad in a quiet way. Worth seeing