The somewhat optimistic premise of an afterlife—featuring the pearly gates of heaven
for some, the fiery depths of hell for others—is typically reserved only for the religious.
But there are also some 100-or-so people tucked away in a Michigan laboratory who
believe in the phrase, “Heaven can wait.”
Directors
Myles Kane and
Josh Koury’s
We Will Live Again feels chilling in more ways than one, opening with a lingering shot of a corpse’s
frozen foot. In just 12 minutes and four seconds, Kane and Koury introduce us to the
world of cryonics, a technique with the primary goal of extending the life of the
dead—all with the hope that science catches up at some point to revive them.
“Nothing is for sure, but you have a chance. I think it’s a good chance,” says the
hopeful and aging
Robert Ettinger, founder of the Cryonics Institute in Clinton Township. Ettinger, who eventually
died before the documentary aired and who became the 106th patient of the institute,
now joins his mother and first wife, wrapped in a sleeping bag and stored at liquid
nitrogen temperature in a cryostat, a floor-to-ceiling ice box.
Sound creepy? It is, especially during the single scene in which we’re witness to
the preparation process.
Andy Zawacki, who maintains operations and lives at the institute Monday through Friday (“It’s
more convenient and practical to stay here”) receives the laboratory’s 100th patient
via U-Haul in a box packed to the brim with dry ice. As Zawacki and his team of helpers
manhandle the frozen corpse while onlookers take photos with their smartphones, you
wonder whether you’re watching an actual documentary or a poor reenactment on the
Syfy channel.
Still,
We Will Live Again is a brief and fascinating glimpse into a world that doubters might deem disturbing,
absurd—even downright disgraceful. They’re nonbelievers, critics say. But by the film’s
end, you get the sense that the “metabolically challenged” patients are, if anything,
hopeful. As Ettinger says, “Many people cannot be comfortable living with uncertainty.
[. . . ] They would rather accept death. But the mark of maturity is serenity in the
face of uncertainty.”
Playing as part of Shorts Program Two, June 20, 5:30 PM, at
AFI Silver Theatre and
Cultural Center, and June 23, 3:45 PM, at the
Goethe-Institut.
