The SABC expressed interest in DEATH some two and a half years ago, after it was pitched to them by Underdog Entertainment, headed by young upstarts Luiz DeBarros and Marc Schwinges.

"I came up with idea of making a documentary about death after facing it in my own family" explains writer/director Luiz, "I also have a strong, sometimes harrowing impulse to explore things that everyone else seems to be trying to ignore". Luiz together with Marc has often produced work that could be conceived of as controversial such as their half hour documentary on Masturbation titled "Different Strokes".

In August of 1997, research, headed by Janine Tilley, began in earnest. "We spent three months thinking about little except death and it's repercussions - eating, breathing and sleeping death" says Janine. Research was often difficult because of the sensitive subject. "A lot of people simply didn't want to talk about their experiences" explains Luiz. Official bureaucracy also compounded matters when the filmmakers sought permission to shoot at locations such as the morgue, cemeteries and prisons. "That's where Marc came in" grins Janine, "he could convince an Eskimo to buy Ice".

The shooting process itself, begun in October 1997, was a harrowing yet fascinating process for the crew. Director of Photography Trevor Brown, along with the rest of the crew, had his moments of doubt - "but I had to keep it together - our aim was to film this documentary in a unique and memorable way". The entire documentary was shot with two and often three cameras at all times - unusual in South Africa documentary productions.

The crew was relatively small - A director of photography, an assistant DOP, a camera assistant who doubled as a gaffer and two Production Assistants. "Small - but comfortable" explains producer Marc Schwinges, " allowing us to not be too intrusive while we were shooting". "It was also the best shooting experience, I've ever had" continues Luiz, "we became a close team, who after all we went through, still retained a sense of humour".

"It was a journey for all of us - it had it's moments of humour, it had it's horror. I hope that we can take the audience on that journey with us" says director Luiz DeBarros. The most memorable experiences for the crew over the three week shoot included filming an autopsy at the morgue, spending a night at the Johannesburg Trauma Unit and filming a past life regression session. A day was spent in-studio shooting a variety of props that would be used in some of the documentary's sequences - from cultural symbols of death to animals associated with death. "I had a stuffed hyena, a bat and a variety of animal and human skeletons sharing my house with me for a week" sighs Marc.

The crew were not only doing their job - but were genuinely fascinated by what they were experiencing. "After each sequence we'd shoot, we would all be asking questions - wanting to know more" says Trevor.

The crew also found themselves at a stand-up comedy club - filming a comedy routine about Death by up-and-coming comedian John Vlismas. "It was kind of bizarre actually - the audience didn't seem to find the topic very funny. As John said, he was "dying" out there." laughs Luiz.

Post-Production was a long process of trying to get through the material - "simply because there was so much of it" according to editor Virgilio Da Silva. The filmmakers had to work through around seventy hours of raw footage including almost sixty interviews with a variety of people. The project was edited (off-lined) on a Lightworks Non-Linear system at the Underdog offices, often with Virgilio editing during the day and Luiz editing during the night-till-dawn-shift. The project was on-lined on an Avid suite at the ZSE facilities. Grading (colour correction and manipulation) took place at the Videolab and final audio was handled at Chris Fellows Sound Studios.

While remaining sensitive to the material, the filmmakers have made a concerted effort to not make the project a depressing and dull experience. This will be a type of documentary rarely seen in South Africa - "we're not only going to inform the audience - but also make it exciting to look at - by using state of the art editing and post production equipment" explains Marc.

But why death as a topic for a documentary? "We're terrified of death but also fascinated by it. Its that ultimate attraction-repulsion impulse in all of us" comments Luiz. "Let's face it," says Marc, "we as a country are very close to death. But there is a schism between this reality and how we deal with it ".

"I hope that this documentary will at least get people talking about the subject", says Luiz. "We could have made a 300 part series - the material lends itself to that. This is a taste of death - a hodge-podge of human experiences and ideas"