Sister Úna Lived a Good Death (2024)

Sister Úna Lived a Good Death

Sometimes, end-of-life documentaries are hit or miss. A subject might offer a kernel of wisdom or experience that changes how you think about life and death, but others fall into tired clichés and do little more than indulge in maudlin voyeurism. Thankfully, Independent Lens and ITVS’ new documentary Sister Úna Lived a Good Death, now available on PBS, is as much about how to live as it is about how to die with dignity.

The hour long film introduces us to a woman who effortlessly charms everyone she meets. Sister Úna Lived a Good Death follows Sister Úna Feeney, an Irish Catholic nun from Boston facing a cancer diagnosis. Directed by Par Parekh and produced by Ali Hart, the documentary stands as testimony to one individual’s strength and particular approach to dying it’s not as depressing as you might think; then again, it’s also thought-provoking.

But while Sister Úna may come from an Irish-Catholic family in Boston, it wasn’t religious fervor that brought her to the Sisters of Social Service: Raised in a non-religious family herself, Sister Una hated nuns until she met the Sisters of Social Service at summer camp.” “I was really attracted to this group of women who are committed to peace and justice,” she explains”.

So I just knew I wanted to be part of it.” Thus did a dress code-breaking fire alarm-pulling school troublemaker grow up into what some described as a “hippy nun.” She drank. She smoked. She rode motorcycles. The film opens with her funeral before backtracking nine months through her last throes of life. We meet her friends (“She’s never done anything for less than three hours!”), her family (including her elderly mother who appears devastated by Sister Úna’s diagnosis) and pregnant niece (who sees her aunt as “an extension of my mother” it’s the type of bond that makes you hold your breath).

And while Una has her quiet contemplative moments and is upset at the thought of being separated from her family by death, she also spends a good deal of time trying to accomplish things before that happens. She wants to go fishing. She wants to go to Las Vegas. And yes, she wants to plan her own funeral. “When I do die,” she deadpans, “it’s my funeral! So I’m doing it my way.” And this is what we see. There are photos, old video footage and interviews with Una herself as well as friends and family members who recount these stories if not verbatim then certainly in spirit.

There are also animated drawings, which serve as both commentary on what was and dream of what would be. Without revealing too much, one such scene features Sister Úna driving a car while an animated blast of light shoots up from behind a mountain range. It should be noted here that the film does track Úna through her final days something some viewers might find difficult to watch if they’ve lost someone in a similar way but even beyond that there are frank conversations about dying from beginning to end. Knowing she was dying gave Úna a sense of freedom and grace (she says), but it’s still hard watching her family grieve for her.

“At the start of the movie, Sister Úna said she wanted to die in a splash. She wants it to be an event that celebrates her life and love,” one speaker said. I can tell from watching this movie that if anything is true about her death, it is that she lived just as singularly. And also clear? The directors loved her. Between viewing mortality with hope, recognizing achievements made while alive and honoring how someone will be remembered forever through film; these three things alone make me think Sister Úna Lived a Good Death would have been approved by Una herself.

Watch Sister Úna Lived a Good Death For Free On Gomovies.