A matter of life and death: Imploring film to elucidate the relationship between chronic illness and death

Despite chronic illness being widespread and increasing in prevalence, curricula largely avoid preparing learners to navigate chronic, often life-threatening, conditions in their daily lives or to prepare learners for the implications of these conditions. In this paper, I begin by discussing an exchange about chronic illness and death that I recently had with a student I called Maya (a pseudonym). I consider how my conversation with Maya reoriented my thinking on the relationship between chronic illness and death. I next illustrate that reorientation in thinking by discussing death's representation in film, which I propose as a viable means forward for elucidating the relationship between death and chronic illness for others.