2018 | Documentary | Video | 93 min

Instructions on Parting is a feature-length documentary film. The World Premiere was held at The Museum of Modern Art, Doc Fortnight 2018 in NYC.

SYNOPSIS: Instructions on Parting weaves breathtaking artistic footage with cinéma vérité to tell an elegiac story about transformation, grief, and the essential nature of the collective human journey. Told in an unconventional visual style, the story evolves from the viewpoint of Director Amy Jenkins, whose first child is born while she negotiates the cancer diagnosis and slide toward death of three of her closest family members. By chronicling with her camera to interrogate loss, the filmmaker leads us to a bold and daring acceptance of our inevitable end.

Clips from the film are available to view at the Instructions on Parting Website. See also the film’s Facebook Page.

“Instructions on Parting” is supported through the generous assistance of  the Vermont Studio Center Clowes Fellowship  and the Berkshire Taconic Artist Fellowship

Director, Producer, and Editor: Amy Jenkins

Producer: Mary Kerr

Editor: Bara Jichova-Tyson

Consulting Editor: Laure Sullivan

Composer: Noah Hoffeld

Sound Designer: Jim Dawson

Screenings

“A vivid visual translation of psychological truth…Satisfyingly unconventional…[Jenkins] makes an eloquent case that experience and contemplation can…soften [our] unavoidable existential dilemma.”

JONATHAN STEVENSON, Two Coats of Paint

“Formally elegant and conceptually rigorous, ‘Instructions on Parting’ is a work that bears witness .”

DAVID SHAPIRO, Bomb (10-page feature interview)