“Death in the Family. A personal look at the funeral industry and how a traditional family-run trade is being overtaken by big corporations.”
“Dying is big business. In 2014, the United States funeral market was estimated to be worth $20bn. With an average of 1.5 million deaths a year and the number of Americans aged 60 and over expected to rise by 19 million by 2020, large corporations are taking over the funeral industry. For a long time, however, it was a family business, and no more so than for Blake Sifton.”
Al Jazeera
This documentary features Blake Sifton and his family funeral home in Ontario, delving into not only the issues around family-run funeral providers being overtaken by big corporations, but also the life of funeral directors, their commitment to their trade and ways in which their landscape is changing.
Ngaio was thrilled to have been interviewed and included in the documentary for her work with Deborah Magdee and the Magdee family when their mom died. The Magdees opted for a home funeral (keeping their mom at home, caring for her and having ceremony with and for her over the following days after her death) rather than going the conventional route of hiring a funeral provider to provide services.
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