Having never experienced hospice before, my eyes were opened to what is perhaps the most humane social organization in the civilized world. While the emotional side of losing my Dad was still incredibly difficult, having 24/7 personalized health care in a familiar environment provided a safe and caring embrace in which our family could share the last days of my Dad's life, rather than his death.

In 2001, I embarked on a unique film project in association with HBO/Cinemax and the hospice program at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Los Angeles. We gave video cameras to patients and their families to record the last months, weeks, days, and hours of their lives. In addition, small crews filmed not only the families, but also the experiences of the nurses, doctors, and social workers who attended to them, as they encountered the full range of end of life issues.

My goal was to not only show the compassion of hospice, but also the combustibility of powerful emotions and family dynamics that come to a head during this period. Having gone through it with my Dad, I saw firsthand that dying did not bring about instant family closure. In fact, Dad's death was complicated and conflicted-a mixture of laughter, tears, anger, gratitude and regret‹that was as rich as life itself.

For some of the families in this film, the use of our cameras provided a heartfelt remembrance. For others, they became tools to express the frustration of watching a loved one slip away, sometimes prematurely. And for one family, the use of the camera provided courage, and a platform, to coax an 'I love you' that had never been uttered before.

In THE END, you will see the last experiences on earth of five fascinating people and their equally unique families, all under the care of a dedicated hospice program. While someone else's death is not an event many of us would choose to watch, I hope that this film is both therapeutic for those of us who have lived through it, and inspiring for all of us who will face this prospect one day - both in our loved ones' lives, as well as our own. I dedicate this film to the memory of my father.

Sincerely Yours,

Kirby Dick Director/THE END

Their footage provides a riveting insight into the powerful emotions of conflict, loss, and reconciliation that envelop and often overwhelm a family. We see the dying as their loved ones see them ­ humorous, obstinate, loving, capricious, angelic, and angry. A vivacious woman in her forties who stubbornly refuses to die clashes with the hospice staff over disappearing narcotics. A teenage girl on her deathbed whispers about the guilt she feels because her illness is causing her father so much grief. A middle-aged son struggles to keep his aging father alive long enough to hear an 'I love you' that never comes.

Interweaving these stories are the experiences of the hospice staff: a team of doctors, nurses, and social workers who give care to the dying in their homes. Often the last new person to come into a patient's life, they inevitably become close to their patients only to grieve them a few months later - a cycle of friendship and loss that repeats itself week after week, patient after patient.

Examining such profound issues as the meaning of suffering, the desire for love and forgiveness, and the search for spiritual reconciliation. THE END is an intensely personal meditation on the experience of death, both for the dying and for those who must go on living.

Kirby Dick is an award-winning Los Angeles filmmaker whose last three theatrical films have premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. His latest film, DERRIDA, is a complex portrait of the world-renowned French philosopher. The film premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, won the Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco Film Festival, and was released theatrically by Zeitgeist Films. The prior year, Dick directed the innovative CHAIN CAMERA, a riveting portrait at contemporary urban teenage life, which also premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

In 1997, he directed the internationally acclaimed SICK: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF BOB FLANAGAN, SUPERMASOCHIST, which won the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the Grand Prize at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Released by Lion's Gate Films, the film earned both an IFP/West Spirit Award Nomination and an International Documentary Association Nomination for Best Feature Documentary of 1998. Dick's first feature film, PRIVATE PRACTICES: THE STORY OF A SEX SURROGATE, won Best Documentary at the USA Film Festival.

Dick has also directed SHOWGIRLS: GLITZ & ANGST, an explosive musical documentary about the creators and dancers of a new Las Vegas show, which premiered last year as part of HBO's prestigious 'America Undercover' series. He most recently completed THE END, a moving and profound chronicle about five terminally ill patients and their families in a Los Angeles hospice program.

Dick is currently in postproduction on a new film for HBO's 2005 season of 'America Undercover.'

EDDIE SCHMIDT (PRODUCER)

As a producer, Eddie Schmidt's work encompasses a broad range of documentary and narrative projects in film, television, and radio.

After collaborating with director Kirby Dick on his groundbreaking documentary SICK, Schmidt went on to produce Dick's next feature, the critically acclaimed CHAIN CAMERA, which premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Last year, Schmidt produced Dick's high-energy musical documentary SHOWGIRLS: GLITZ & ANGST for HBO's 'America Undercover.'

Schmidt, who began his career at New Line Cinema, has also lent his producing talents to the TV series BLIND DATE and THE COMPETITION, as well as original DVD material for films like BOOGIE NIGHTS and SEVEN. He has also been a contributor to National Public Radio's popular series THIS AMERICAN LIFE.

Schmidt most recently completed THE END, a raw and intimate look at patients and families in a Los Angeles hospice program. He is currently in postproduction on a new documentary for the 2005 season of HBO's 'America Undercover.'