Jackson Doc Fest – 2026 Environment Feature Winner
INTERVIEW
The Life We Leave - JJ Gerber
Q. Your journey with The Life We Leave began partly with the loss of your mother. How did that personal experience lead you to make this film?
I had a transactional experience with the funeral home in my mom’s hometown. They didn’t offer a viewing, or a last opportunity to say good bye, it was just very much, “here’s a box of your mom’s ashes, would you like to buy a keychain with her picture on it?” And it didn’t feel great, it didn’t feel like they cared at all, they were just going through the motions. So as I was grieving I was wondering if that’s how it was for everyone. Turns out, it’s far too frequent of an experience.
Q. What was it about human composting and Micah Truman’s vision that convinced you this was a story worth following for five years?
Micah was interesting from the beginning, but the story started much more broadly looking at the alternative deathcare industry. I interviewed dozens of people working in every nook and cranny of the deathcare space. Dozens of hours of footage. But we kept coming back to Micah and Katey and Brie. Micah was the one outsider of the funeral industry and he was coming in hot, he wears his heart on his sleeve and he’s just this fascinating, driven, incredibly intelligent person. Katey and Brie are just power houses, they care so deeply and authentically and watching them work is like watching someone at the top of their craft.
Q. You followed Micah, Brie Smith, and Katey Houston through significant personal and professional changes. What surprised you most about their journey?
When you’re making a doc, especially over the course of a number of years, the character arcs aren’t always super clear until you can go back and watch the footage over. There’s so much more to the Return Home story that we couldn’t tell due to time, or it just didn’t fit thematically. Ultimately though, I wasn’t so surprised by things, as I was really compelled and humbled by the service that Katey and Brie do. It totally changed my perspective of what a funeral director could be, and they’re setting a bar I’d love to see the industry aim for.
Q. Was there a moment during production when you realized the film was becoming different from what you originally envisioned?
We had just completed our first assembly in early 2024, over 3 years after starting the project. We recognized we still had so many holes in the story and nothing really made sense – In addition to the story at Return Home we had interviewed like a dozen thought-leaders in the deathcare space and had one off stories with each of them. It was a really frustrating experience. We knew we wanted Return Home to be the backbone of the story, but once we swept away everything else, we realized that we didn’t need all of those other stories – everything we were trying to say lived under that one roof. So by narrowing the scope, we actually were able to create a more rich and focused story that said everything we were trying to say through many voices.
Q. The film examines the tension between compassion and capitalism. What did you learn about balancing genuine care for grieving families with the realities of running a sustainable business?
I’m anti-capitalist at heart, and one of the reasons I wanted so many stories of people doing amazing work is cause many of them were eschewing the capitalist way of death. We have been dealing with the dead for as long as humans have lived, each of us knows how to do this in our marrow. We’ve spent years separating ourselves from dead, and its beautiful to see that tide shifting. But at the end of the day, we live in a capitalist society, and everyone should get paid for their work, but we need to look at that work is? I don’t want to pay someone to sell me a keychain with my mothers picture on it. I want someone to help me see that its ok to stand next to her and wash her hands that washed me when I was kid. If someone is providing a service, standing next to me, helping me – thats valuable.
Q. Human composting can initially sound unusual or uncomfortable. How did you approach the subject so audiences could connect with its human and environmental significance?
I actually find that when I tell people I’m working on a film about human composting they kinda stop and are like “wait what?” I find more intrigue than discomfort. But we just approach it head on – and the connections come naturally.
Q. What did you discover about the role of ritual and human connection in the way we experience death and grief?
This was my favorite discovery from making the film. Ritual around death is so broken in American culture. Funeral homes take our loved ones away, hide them behind doors, by embalming it makes it so we can’t touch them, and the immediacy of cremation – our brains don’t process death as quickly as fire can consume a body… Touch is the biggest one I think we’re missing. So being with your person, touching them, processing that loss before they disappear.
Q. After spending five years making this documentary, how has your own understanding of mortality and legacy changed?
I’m not sure its changed too much other than talking about death ALOT over the past 5 years – but still catch myself using euphemisms like “passed away” instead of dead or died. I’m gonna be compost one day, I’m good with that, maybe better with it than I used to be.
Q. What broader conversation do you hope The Life We Leave creates about how our final choices can affect the people and the planet we leave behind?
I mean that’s the conversation we’re trying to spark – it’s one most people don’t even have, or wait until the last moment. It doesn’t need to be a broad conversation, it just needs to be one that happens! At the same time, having that conversation begins to reveal some truths about who we are. Why are some groups so against the composting of a human body – including, funeral professional lobbies and religious groups? What values do you hold in life that you’d like to hold in death? And what might be preventing that? How can corporate lobbies prevent us from choosing something for our body in death that is safe, improves the health of the planet, and is legal in so many places? And if they can stop legislation, or prevent the service from being offered – then what does bodily autonomy look like in death? And if we can have that bodily autonomy to choose what we want in death – shouldn’t we have true bodily autonomy in life?
Q. The Life We Leave has won the 2026 Jackson Doc Fest Environment Feature Film Award. What does this recognition mean to you and the team behind the film?
This film came from the heart of so many people, and we’re so grateful to all of the families that put themselves out there to tell the story of their loved one at the one of the hardest times of their lives. Micah once told me as he was opening the doors to his facility – “We are standing on the shoulders of giants”. And I think that’s more true now than ever.
Thank you for the recognition. It means the world to us to know that these stories are taking on a new life of their own.