Donated to Science: The Journey of the Cadaver (A Documentary)

From PRN Films

In this film we follow a group of people who donate their bodies to the University of Otago Medical School for students to dissect. We interviewed the donors while they were still alive; both the donors and students gave us permission to follow their amazing journey. We are there when the students meet the body for the first time, we are there when they make their first cut, and we are there when they say their final goodbyes.

By intercutting the donors interviews with their own bodies being dissected and the student’s reactions for the first time on film, we have the chance to share that amazing journey of the students, the donors and their families.

What the students learn is far more than just anatomy. From the dead they learn life, they learn compassion and they learn humanity. After their two years of dissection the students finally get to ‘meet’ their cadavers. As we show them the original interviews they are forced to revisit their reactions and attitudes to the body in light of the donor’s thoughts and feelings giving the film an emotional climax that it would be hard to equal in any other film, a climax made even more powerful because it is real.

Donated to Science & To Be a Doctor – Trailer from PRN Films on Vimeo.