Documentary of the Dead

I just finished watching the Netflix documentary Dick Johnson is Dead. Filmmaker Kirsten Johnson documents the decline of her father’s mental prowess, and also simulates (with stuntmen & sets) possible ways he might die and the afterlife. It reminded me of this piece of prose that I wrote a decade or more ago.

After checking the IMDb entry for Dick Johnson is Dead, I discovered an interesting coincidence: Kirsten Johnson was the cinematographer for the documentary Derrida. Although I’m a fan of Derrida musician Ryuchi Sakamoto, more notable here is that sound work for Derrida was done by Mark Z. Danielewski.

Mark went on to write House of Leaves (a novel about a documentary about a haunted house). Mark’s sister is named Anne, and their father (another documentarian) was named Tad.