- At the height of the pandemic a young man with brain cancer named Ethan Sisser became a social media influencer, inspiring thousands around the globe with his unique approach towards the dying process.
- Ethan Sisser, a young man afflicted with brain cancer, sits alone in his hospital room. When he begins live-streaming his death journey on social media, thousands of people around the world join him and celebrate his courage. Still, Ethan envisions more - to teach the world how to die. To honor his final wish of filming his death, his doctor, Aditi Sethi, transports him to a quiet house in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Asheville, North Carolina. What unfolds next is a story that's rarely glimpsed: how a community of strangers helps an unhoused man die on his own terms. A sensory immersion into leaving the body, The Last Ecstatic Days reveals a man who will not let us forget him - even after he's taken his final breath.
- During the height of Covid, 36-year-old Ethan Sisser makes the bold choice to livestream his death experience from the sterile space of his hospital room. His hope is to teach the world how to die; his final wish - not dying alone. A hospice doctor turned death doula named Aditi Sethi answers the call.
As a palliative care physician, Aditi knows Ethan's last wish of filming his death is something to honor rather than follow the "rules" of the hospice home. So she does the unthinkable - walking away from the medical system. With the help of Asheville death workers, Aditi, leaving behind a career she has worked for her entire life, to create a space for Ethan to die. All for a stranger whom she has just met. All to offer him the death he wants - on camera, surrounded by community and the idyllic natural landscape of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
But, how many people does it take to help one person die? Turns out, quite a lot. Hospice nurses, death doulas, acupuncturists, physicians, musicians and family all gather to witness Ethan. As countless strangers make their way up the mountain to visit him, hugs grow more frequent. Tears flow from a space of love and gratitude, and healing comes in the form of release.
While Ethan's parents repair the painful rifts between them, his brother shovels the grave he will place his younger sibling in, and strangers work to keep Ethan comfortable, Aditi shepherds their experience. She deftly directs Ethan and those around him through the many aspects of allowing a body to cease while the spirit releases.
Ethan decidedly embraces his legacy when his death is live-streamed on social media and the online world joins a group of strangers at his bedside in honoring Ethan's brave choice to ask for what we all deserve - a loving death.
The Last Ecstatic Days reminds us that we have forgotten how to die. Aditi and Ethan can help us remember. And ultimately, this resoundingly poignant, yet often sweet, film transports you into your own depths to explore how you want to die. And live.
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