Jessica Mitford 2.0? . . . This might the 21st Century version

March 5, 2026/Business/

I have distinct memories of accompanying my father to a community forum that included Death Care at our local technical college back in about 1972 when I was a young teenager.

What I remember most about that event is the questions hurled at my father about what appeared to be the way funeral directors and funeral homes took advantage of those families who had lost loved ones. From my point of view, at about age 15 and as a family member of a funeral service family who had taken pride in “taking care” of our neighbors, the questions were far from what I had witnessed of my father working in the profession.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Being in business for about 100 years as a family business at that time I had been told of our family serving families for no cost during the Depression and about being willing to serve families during the contagious Spanish flu, diptheria, and polio epidemics when even family members didn’t want to touch their deceased loved ones. I had a feeling of honor and pride about our family’s role in the community.

I had also witnessed my father going out in the middle of the night and cancelling family outings and vacations to take care of families in need. Again the questions coming were far from the “funeral service” that I had seen my own family exhibit. . . . and, I was hurt and confused by the questions, that seemed to question my father’s integrity, of that night.

I learned from my father later that night about Jessica Mitford’s 1963 best-selling book titled “The American Way of Death” and how some members of society accepted all of her premises about the greed and dishonesty of American funeral directors without even giving funeral directors the opportunity to explain their business situations. People that knew my dad, knew our story. But strangers just seemed to accept Mitford’s thesis on funeral homes and funeral directors.

Well, I recently learned from this recent article in Deadline that Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions and QC Entertainment are in the “post-production” stage of putting together a full-length documentary film titled “Death Boom” that when released may have the same effects on society as Mitford’s 1963 book about the Death Care business.

Here’s part of the description of the coming film from the Deadline article, ”

“(Director) Jessica Chandler and I (producer Eli Roth) have wanted to make this film for over twenty years, since she first told me about the environmental horrors of the death care industry and how avoiding death as a subject makes us complicit. We spent years finding brave people willing to speak on camera, revealing the poisoning of our bodies and land that contaminates our water, air, and food.

We aimed to show the issue from all sides, without blame or shame, and to present clear solutions that already exist but are blocked by those invested in maintaining the current system for profit. Made entirely in secrecy, the film will shock and inspire. This is not an attack on an industry, but an effort to understand how we got here and how we can move forward together to protect future generations. Jessica and her team did incredible work, and we hope the film galvanizes people to take control of their own death.”

The Deadline article also makes this comment, “The exposé film, currently in post-production, reunites Roth and (DiCaprio’s) Appian Way, who previously collaborated on the shark-finning doc Fin, which contributed to the shutdown of shark kill tournaments along the East Coast of the U.S.”

Funeral Director Daily take: To my knowledge we don’t yet know who will stream the movie or if it will be introduced into theatres. It will be interesting to see where it is introduced to the public from. According to this information from Wikipedia, Appian Way’s production of “Fin” was streamed exclusively on Discovery +.

I’m guessing when it is released the Death Care profession will hear about it and must be in a position to counter arguments it may raise.

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