Beginning with the End
Directed & Produced by David Marshall
BSP Films
Release date: March 10, 2014 (SXSW)

“I wished to live deliberately, to confront only the essential facts of life… and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” – Henry David Thoreau

At the Harley School in Rochester, New York, a group of high school seniors enroll in an elective class called “Hospice,” where young people tend for those whose lives are ending before their very eyes – and they know it.

On the first day of class, the students share their own experiences with death. From there, the students learn practical skills such as how to fluff a pillow, how to turn a person from their back to their side, and how to assist with feeding and giving care to those who are unable to care for themselves.

Beginning with the End, directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker David Marshall, follows teacher Bob Kane (not to be confused with the creator of Batman) and a group of teenagers who are volunteering as caregivers to dying patients at local comfort care homes.