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Documents the last four years of the filmmaker's life-partner, outspoken lesbian, artist and theater director, Nancy Diuguid's life, as she fought breast cancer.
DANCE ME TO THE END OF TIME is a deeply personal film about love in the face of death. Award-winning filmmaker Melanie Chait documented the last four years of her life partner, London theatre director Nancy Diuguid's life, as she fought breast cancer. Woven into Nancy's personal story are insights from scientist and ecologist Rachel Carson, whose seminal book, "Silent Spring" exposed the health danger of pesticides as far back as 1962.
Nancy grew up on a tobacco farm in Kentucky, where small planes regularly sprayed their farms with pesticides. DANCE ME TO THE END OF TIME powerfully explores the impact of pesticides, not only on the environment but also on the human body by journeying with Nancy as she navigates her cancer treatment and the tremendous love that is shared in doing so. It pays tribute to Nancy a visionary director and actor who used the creative arts and her own lesbian identity as a lifelong campaign for justice and healing, covering gay and women's movement issues from the 70s as well as exploring Rachel Carson's remarkable legacy.
DANCE ME TO THE END OF TIME is not an extended meditation on death, but a celebration of an energized and involved life.
80 minutes
SDH Captioned
Directed by Melanie Chait
Produced by Melanie Chait
Editor: Tonia Moller
Co-Producer: Lauren Groenewald
Composer: Dorian Ford
Cinematography & Sound: Melanie Chait
A Big Fish School of Digital Filmmaking and a Long Shot Production in association with The National Film and Video Association
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"DANCE ME TO THE END OF TIME is an intimate and unflinching portrait of death and dying that is also a celebration of life, love, and gay identity. The story of Melanie Chait's devotion to her life-partner Nancy Diuguid unfolds alongside an exploration of the persistent dangers of cancer-causing poisons in our environment. Weaving Diuguid's cancer journey together with scenes from environmental pioneer Rachel Carson's personal life and cancer struggle, the film leaves us with hope that the lifework of visionaries like Diuguid and Carson will not be in vain."
"This is a compelling, beautifully-told story that will open the door for critically important conversations on the human impact on the environment, gender, sexual orientation, death and dying, and intersections of these topics. DANCE ME TO THE END OF TIME will fit well in disciplines such as environmental studies, women and gender studies, and sociology."
Deborah Altus, Professor of Family and Human Services, Washburn University
"As a public health nurse, I have always understood that our health and wellbeing is intertwined with nature and how we care for nature. This film beautifully shows, not only in narration but through exquisite visuals, a life well lived because of appreciation of that interconnectedness. Although death is at the end of the movie, the film leaves us with a sense of hope and direction for our own lives."
"Nancy's journey reminds us one can devour energy, digest experience, and live fully right up to the end. Hers is a portrait of life, one where the most important thing is to discover one's most important thing. DANCE ME TO THE END OF TIME exemplifies living and dying on one's terms, with eyes wide open."
"DANCE ME TO THE END OF TIME is a profoundly personal tribute to found family, friendship, and the healing power of the arts and community. Melanie Chait's interweaving of Nancy Diuguid and Rachel Carson's biographies amidst beautiful footage of South Africa and histories of toxic farming in Kentucky show that for good or ill, we carry our physical environments with us."
Lauran Whitworth, Assistant Professor and Chair, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Agnes Scott College