TheBusinessofDeathFilm

A lovely piece in the Funeral Service Times about our feature in production, The Business of Death, featuring our director, Gemma Atkinson, and Gary Valentine of @VandTFunerals

For #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek we'd like to highlight the incredible work organisations such as @DyingMatters have been doing this past year, where too many have been forced to deal with the reality of death and loss of loved ones.

Stories and experience are what #DyingMatters is all about – help us understand what is happening to people in the UK at the #endoflife. Tell your #DMAW21 story. Discover more: ow.ly/CMsn50EJ9oG #InAGoodPlace

Check out @DyingMatters Awareness Week and the important work they are doing to make sure people are #InAGoodPlace at the end of their lives #DMAW21

Join us in observing the National Day of Reflection with @mariecurieuk to remember everyone who has died over the past year - 12:00 noon today. #DayOfReflection

If you missed the short version of our feature film on C4 news last week you can catch it here: bit.ly/thebusinessofd… Huge thanks to our amazing team: Gemma Atkinson (Director), Fred Grace & Jodie Taylor (Producers), @levenephoto (DP), @rhiannonmayor (Editor), & @Azimuthpost

@RayHAppCoach @fa_jacinta Thank you so much for your kind words @RayHAppCoach. We completely agree that funeral directors haven't had the recognition they deserve across the course of this pandemic, despite their essential work

@BusinessofDeath @fa_jacinta Thank you so much for this honest and much needed mini documentary. I totally understand why people don't want to 'thank' the funeral industry, but funeral workers have gone woefully under appreciated over the last 12 months. We'll done @BusinessofDeath

Will definitely be tuning in!

(while observing government guidelines), embedded with them as they collected bodies and organised and ran COVID-19 funerals on a daily basis. Here's me remote directing an interview, with Wayne and our amazing DP, David Levene'

Every day they offered up new information that I hadn’t heard a stitch of on the news. They made me cry and they even made me laugh. However, as soon as we could, at the beginning of May, we sent our DP to shoot with Gary, Wayne and the Valentine and Turner family

GEMMA ATKINSON, THE FILM'S DIRECTOR ON WHAT HAPPENED IN MARCH 2020, AFTER 6 YEARS OF FILMING WITH GARY AND WAYNE: 'Initially while the country was in total lock down Gary was sending me his video diaries on a daily basis.

I spent several years documenting Gary, as he grew & learned his craft, had a family and set up his business ‘Valentine & Turner Funeral Directors’. My intention was always for this to be a longitudinal film, but 7 years in I could never have anticipated what was coming next...'

The same depth and emotional intelligence that he demonstrates with his mourners is very powerful on camera, and, together with the kind of humour and comic timing that brings great levity to a dark subject, it makes him a very captivating storyteller.

Here Gemma, Director of our feature length film, describes what drew her to one of our central characters, Gary: 'I first met Gary in the summer of 2014, and was immediately drawn to him.

How do you pick a funeral home? Ryan and Brian share their opinions. #funeralhome #mortuary #burial #cremation #podcast undertakingthepodcast.libsyn.com/229-how-to-cho…

#bereavement is something we all experience, but during the pandemic even more of us will be affected by loss. For advice on how to support children through these difficult times, visit winstonswish.org @winstonswish #schooltoolkit #parentalengagement #parentpower #derby

“The undertakers are the ones no one wants to think of...and I get why, but we are just a normal family.” NAFD member @VandTFunerals has been filmed as their team cared for families during #COVID. Did you see the broadcast last night on @Channel4News? channel4.com/news/funeral-d…

@BusinessofDeath @BBCSimonMcCoy You're welcome. So pleased to see it; every now & then during the pandemic I've wondered about funeral homes and then did nothing about it!

Thank you for putting us into the limelight, we really are the forgotten ones. Thank you for everything you are doing, it’s certainly been a year like no other. You’ve really captured the struggles we have faced. If anyone missed @BusinessofDeath you can watch on the link below: