Following much-deserved renewed attention for Michael Roemer’s career thanks to the recent restorations of Nothing But a Man, The Plot Against Harry, and Vengeance Is Mine, the 97-year-old director has more reason to celebrate. Dying and Pilgrim, Farewell, a pair of rediscovered, largely unseen films by the director, will be opening at NYC’s Film Forum beginning this Friday, January 24 with Roemer in-person on Saturday, January 25.
Roemer’s documentary Dying will run in a new 4K restoration, scanned from the original camera negative by Colorlab, while his drama Pilgrim, Farewell will screen in a new 35mm print. Asked by Boston television network WGBH if he would be interested in making a film about the rites and customs of death, Roemer agreed, but he was only interested in exploring the topic from the point of view of those in the process of dying. Three and a half months of interviews with forty people, resulted in the three who appear in the film Dying (1976), a documentary unlike any other in its attempt to address the still most taboo of all themes, with its subjects saying on-camera what few would under any other circumstances.
Following Dying, Roemer revisited its themes in drama form with his next film, Pilgrim, Farewell (1982). As summer ebbs near a Vermont lake, widow Elizabeth Huddle and lover Christopher Lloyd try to come to terms with her terminal cancer — complicated by a pregnant sister and an estranged daughter (Laurie Prange). Co-produced by American Playhouse, the film would play festivals and receive very positive reviews when broadcast on PBS, but has never received a theatrical release until now.
Watch our exclusive trailer premieres for both films below.