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Name:

Michelle Le Brun

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Concept:

My husband, Mel Howard, died not too long ago. He was a producer and film educator and all around cinema verité kind of guy. The video camera was like a partner in our relationship recording everything from moments of ecstasy to moments of anger and pain. It was a very natural extension for us to turn on the camera when he was diagnosed with primary liver cancer. We didn't know then that he would die. A year and a half after he did die I put the footage together into a documentary.

In the final days of Mel's life he seemed to be crossing over and coming back again to tell me what he was experiencing - It was a profound awakening for me that has altered how I see the world forever. He showed me a glimpse through the final gateway and I saw it to be expansive and abundant not terror and horror. I watched his spirit/energy leaving his body the way a photograph turns from negative to positive.

I see now the transience and impermanence of this life that we get wrapped up in thinking it's so real. Ashes to Ashes - Dust to Dust. The speckled matter that everything in this physical existence is made up of casts itself to the winds once again to reform itself into another thriving organism only to dissolve again. All that remains is the pulse to continue.

For me the hour glass is a great representation of this endless flow of spirit from one form and size to another - It is also the symbol of the endless flow of time. When Mel died I buried half of his ashes in his family plot and kept half so that when I die our ashes can be mingled together in an hour glass that will slowly turn in circles every hour revealing one of the things I miss the most; the loving embrace of our juicy kisses. Each year one teaspoon of our ashes should be taken from the hourglass/urn and used to plant a fruit tree on our plot and then around L.A. - our town of marriage. When all the ashes are gone, the hour glass should be broken and the shards thrown into the ocean to become like worn gems that will some day wash up on the shores of beaches all over the world.

Bio:

Michelle Le Brun's debut as a filmmaker comes with the premiere of her documentary Death: A Love Story at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival.

Previously, she associate-produced and also acted in The Gifted (Cannes 1997) and The Presto Brothers, starring Felicity Huffman. Le Brun hails from Boston, where she has worked as an actor, performance artist, dance therapist, and creative arts educator. She also delivers seminars nationwide on the use of a multidisciplinary approach to the arts in education.

Mel Howard played a wide variety of roles on both sides of the camera. In a career that spanned more than 35 years, Mr. Howard achieved distinction as an actor, director, producer, production executive and Chairman such film training institutions as New York University and Boston University. He was also Co-Founding Associate Director of the American Film Institute.