How do you put a life into 500 words? Ask the staff obituary writers at the New York Times. OBIT is a first-ever glimpse into the daily rituals, joys and existential angst of the Times obit writers, as they chronicle life after death on the front lines of history.
Writing
Writers treating 500-word limits like sacred architecture
Production
The morgue—yes, they actually call it that
Director
Vanessa Gould
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The NYT morgue contains over 10,000 drawers of clippings, some dating to the 1850s—librarians still physically retrieve them by hand.
Director Vanessa Gould spent over a year embedded with the desk; no subjects were paid, a rarity in documentary access.
US
