A new documentary examining in intimate and moving detail how Black funeral homes in New Orleans have had to adapt to the devastating impact of COVID-19—and the pandemic’s impact on jazz funeral traditions—recently debuted on the PBS series FRONTLINE. Death Is Our Business is the latest project of award-winning filmmaker Jacqueline Olive (Always in Season). The film will be rebroadcast WORLD Channel on Wednesday, March 24, at 9 p.m., or it can be viewed online.
Olive shines a light on how the virus has rocked the Black community’s cherished cultural practices in New Orleans—a city that is no stranger to loss and grief.
“New Orleans is this very complex combination of suffering and joy. Katrina forced us to think a lot about what it means to heal,” Dr. Denese Shervington says in the film. “I think we’re having a similar experience with COVID and this pandemic. How do individuals come back from extreme loss, loss of family members, loss of what was normal? How do you find your way back?”
While revealing the racial disparities of the virus’ toll, the film goes inside two of the oldest Black-owned funeral homes in the city—Rhodes and Charbonnet—offering an intimate look at rituals that are specific to how many Black Americans funeralize their loved ones and the troubling ways that the pandemic has impacted them by forcing once in-person church services, packed and overflowing, into virtual Zoom, Skype, and Facebook Live spaces.
Olive also spotlights the esteemed tradition of jubilant jazz funerals held by many local families to commemorate the passage of loved ones, honoring their memory with music and dancing through the streets.
“Death Is Our Business is a memorial to the people who have died from coronavirus,” says Olive. “The film has been a vital way for me to also explore the compounded injuries of racial inequity faced by so many who survive in New Orleans, as in many cities across the country. I am honored by the support of people in New Orleans, Firelight Media, FRONTLINE, and WORLD Channel with creating a film that captures both beauty and tragedy, propelled by powerful Black cultural practices that provide affirmation and healing in egregiously impacted communities.”
Death Is Our Business is Olive’s first FRONTLINE documentary and is a part of her FRONTLINE/Firelight Investigative Journalism Fellowship—a Fellowship that was created to support independent filmmakers of color interested in journalistic documentary filmmaking. The fellowship aims to address the need for more diverse voices, perspectives, and experiences within that field.
Check PBS listings nationwide here.
