Director & Producer Vanessa Gould and Reporter Bruce Weber
What do you consider a newsworthy death?
Well, the New York Times’ obituaries section is not limited to celebrities and politicians, as there are many ordinary people doing extraordinary things and their stories deserve to be told in print and online. By flipping to the obits section, you can access history from the perspective of a skilful reporter who wrote a retrospective about a person who led a meaningful life. That’s something worth reading.
After job shadowing a movie critic at The Globe and Mail during high school, I was intrigued by the movie Obit, as it promises to offer a behind the scenes look at The New York Times. Thankfully, Vanessa Gould’s movie is insightful and engaging and you don’t need to be a journalist to enjoy this documentary at Hot Docs. After all, the obits are written for everyone. One of the reporters communicated this effectively when he said that their challenge is to craft an entertaining piece about history for people who don’t know history.
As soon as Gwen Stefani became a published writer on LinkedIn, the negative feedback started rolling in. I saw comments that said “RIP LinkedIn,” as if the social network is suddenly doomed to fail. I can support someone who complains about seeing too many personal updates on the platform, but I don’t think celebrities are to blame for the site’s potential demise.
