PRESS KIT & HOST A SCREENING RESOURCES
GET INVOLVED IN THE MOVEMENT
WHAT IS A GREEN BURIAL? GReen burial & the funeral industry?
 

PRESS KIT:

Press Kit – PDF with synopses, press quotes, bios, directors' statement, and more.
Downloadable Press Kit – zip file, with all of the above plus hi-res images.
Photo Gallery for even more images.

HOST A SCREENING RESOURCES:

HOSTING A SCREENING PLANNING TIPS AND DISCUSSION GUIDE
GREEN BURIAL FAQS
ADD YOUR SCREENING INFO TO THIS WEBSITE – Already hosting a screening? We are so grateful and would love to add your information.
Post-screening filmmaker Q&A? – This is possible in person or over Zoom. For more info, email us at [email protected]

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PLAN A GREEN FUNERAL

Green will – The Green Burial Council has created this helpful new tool to assist in the preplanning of a green funeral: GBCgreenfuneralplanner.pdf
Green Burial Council Resources – Useful for evaluating providers: www.greenburialcouncil.org
Let your wishes be known: If you know you want a green burial, but haven't written it into a will yet, the simplest thing you can do is just let your wishes be known. There are tools, for example Five Wishes, to help record your instructions and requests. If you're on social media, using the hashtag #iwantagreenburial (and #awillforthewoods if you like!) is a way to join a greater conversation, and possibly a way to start one within your immediate community.
Check out these resources: Our educational RESOURCES section has information on green burial as well as resources and organizations that can help you plan and make decisions. Some of this information is also on this page.

See and share the film

Find a screening: Upcoming screenings are listed on our SEE page. This is updated constantly. 
Watch the DVD or online version of the film: The film is now available on DVD, as well as online through iTunes and Vimeo.
Host your own screening: Community and Educational screening licenses are now available for any host anywhere in the world. See the Host A Screening section of our SEE page for all the information. Or email us with any questions: [email protected]
Add Your Screening Info to this Website – Already hosting a screening? We are so grateful and would love to add your information. Email us at [email protected].

Talk about it

The general lack of conversation around end-of-life options and the stigma of discussing death may be the number one hindrance to the green burial movement. So keep talking! Tell people about green burial and the film, host a screening, or encourage others to host a screening in their area.
Join us on social media – Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – and together we can move this concept into the mainstream consciousness. 
Join or start a conversation online by using the hashtag #iwantagreenburial. Starting with the film's US broadcast on public television, we are encouraging people to use this hashtag so others know that this is an option, and that it is what you want. (And feel free to add on #awillforthewoods if you like!)
Share your thoughts about the film: Another way to help spread the word and continue the conversation is to take the time to share your thoughts about the film on platforms such as Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb, and wherever you can view the film such as Vimeo, iTunes, and Amazon. This helps to build online visibility for the film, so thank you in advance for taking the time.  
Email us [email protected]

Get out there

If you are curious about ways to be involved with green burial sites near you, know that some have events from time to time, such as native plant and seed sales or giveaways, picnics, bird and nature walks, tree plantings, awareness campaigns, and more. Simply visiting these beautiful natural sites is yet another way of participating. 

help conserve land

Learn more about providers and ways to get even more involved with green cemeteries and natural preserves at www.greenburialcouncil.org

More resources

Green Burial Council http://www.greenburialcouncil.org
Funeral Consumers Alliance (US) http://funerals.org
National Home Funeral Alliance (US) http://www.homefuneralalliance.org
Natural Burial Association (Canada) http://www.naturalburialassoc.ca
The Natural Death Centre (UK) http://www.naturaldeath.org.uk
The Natural Death Care Centre (AU) https://www.naturaldeathcarecentre.org 
Natural Death Advocacy Network (AU) http://ndan.com.au
End of Life Document Checklist (US) https://www.asbestos.com/support/end-of-life-documents/

Local groups and death cafes

There are also some independent home funeral groups and green or natural burial groups that operate regionally or locally.

Also, in many cities there are now meetups known as death cafes, which are usually hosted in a public place open to all and designed to offer a space where death can be openly discussed, often in a casual, positive, or creative way.

BOOKS

• Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial, Mark Harris
• American Afterlife: Encounters in the Customs of Mourning, Kate Sweeney
• Final Rights: Reclaiming the American Way of Death, Joshua Slocum and Lisa Carlson
• The American Way of Death, Jessica Mitford
• This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, Drew Gilpin Faust
• Funeral Rights: What the Australian ‘deathcare’ industry doesn’t want you to know, Robert Larkins

FILM / VIDEO

• Ask a Mortician / The Order of the Good Death
• A Family Undertaking (home funeral feature documentary), Elizabeth Westrate
• Dying Green (short documentary), Ellen Tripler

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Green burial is a simple and natural alternative to resource-intensive contemporary burial or cremation. The deceased is laid to rest in the earth using only biodegradable materials and without a vault or toxic embalming, in a woodland or other natural setting, often with a fieldstone or indigenous plant marking the grave. This practice can be used as a conservation tool, enabling the acquisition, restoration, and stewardship of natural areas. Simple natural burials were prevalent for thousands of years (and still are in many parts of the world, including in traditional Muslim and Jewish burials) before the contemporary funeral industry propagated the standard of expensive and elaborate funerals divorced from natural processes.

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GREEN BURIAL AND THE FUNERAL INDUSTRY

As the world has become increasingly concerned with climate change and environmental degradation, the role that our funeral and burial practices play in these matters has gone largely unaddressed.

The typical American-style funeral — with a casket made of precious wood or metal, a concrete vault, a large marble or granite monument, and embalming — is incredibly resource-intensive, and it has become common in much of the world. In the U.S. alone, approximately 33 million board feet of mostly virgin wood, 60,000 tons of steel, 1.6 million tons of reinforced concrete, and 5 million gallons of toxic embalming fluid are put into the ground every year. Further, the large tracts of land that conventional cemeteries occupy are typically covered in turf grass in need of constant maintenance in the form of mowing, watering, and the application of chemicals. Cremation, sometimes misconstrued as a green alternative to conventional burial, consumes a large amount of fossil and other fuels, and as the body is burned at high temperatures, particulate pollution, CO2 (approximately 110 pounds per cremation, on average), and toxins such as dioxins, furans, and mercury are released into the atmosphere.

The burgeoning green burial movement seeks to change these conventions — not only by greatly reducing resource use and pollution, but also by using burial as a conservation strategy to protect and restore natural areas. In addition to these environmental benefits, the cost of a green burial is often much less than that of a conventional one. Furthermore, green burial offers many the solace of knowing that they will remain within the cycle of life.

Created over the course of four years, A Will for the Woods documents the movement’s progress by focusing on some of its key figures, including Joe Sehee of the Green Burial Council; Kimberley and Dr. Billy Campbell, founders of the nation’s first conservation burial ground; and Dyanne Matzkevich, who is saving a tract of forest within her conventional cemetery by turning it into a green burial ground. The film’s main focus, however, is the story of Clark Wang and Jane Ezzard. Faced with the possibility of Clark's imminent death, they find beauty and comfort in the environmental and spiritual significance of green burial.

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