The Life We Leave (2026 | USA | 87 minutes | JJ Gerber)

It sounds like a punchline, because it was one, but it’s also true: Washington became the first state in the union to legalize human composting. A state accustomed to hydroelectric power, natural wonders, and complicated rituals at even coffeehouse recycling stations enabled an ecologically friendly way for citizens to literally return to the earth. 

In an enlightening and deeply moving documentary, JJ Gerber provides a window into the practice of “terramation” as an alternative to the entrenched typical customs of embalming, burial, or cremation (all of which come with harsh environmental consequences). The unlikely guide is Micah Truman, an entrepreneur who achieved financial success doing business in China. Seeing an opportunity for disruption, he became a pioneer of the human composting industry when he opened Return Home, a large-scale facility in Auburn.

The early parts of the film demystify the process by which a human body, aided by soil, alfalfa, and other organic ingredients, is transformed to usable soil within the span of months inside an austere vessel (spoiler: microbes, natural heat, and some mechanical tumbling are involved). With a fairly light tone, it confronts the natural visceral revulsion that we all feel at the certainty of death and decay as well as the resistance to new practices from the existing death care industry. We see those forces overcome as established funeral managers join Parsons’s team and provide the much-needed human element to end-of-life care. 

While there is an unexpected lightness to a film situated around death, it is candid about the financial and personal toll that a new venture takes on its founder’s life. Even more brutal, though, are the sensitively rendered portraits of the lives committed to the soil and the surviving families who entrust their loved ones to the care of the facility. From the youngest children to the eldest matriarch, each story is its own form of heartrending. 

What transpires is truly inspiring and transformative. We immediately see the change in Micah’s outlook and personal investment as people begin to entrust his new venture with the remains of their loved ones. The longer timescale for decomposition has unexpected consequences — loosely reminiscent of Cronenberg’s The Shrouds — as loved ones take opportunities to adorn the vessels with personal memorabilia. We see how, with the empathetic guidance of established funeral professional Brie Smith and Katey Houston, the business begins to reshape and reinvent the look, feel, and customs of the grieving process. 

Changing hearts and minds is extremely difficult, but I’d challenge anyone to not have their views moved by this emotionally potent, eye-opening, and deftly crafted film. I’m a convert. When the time comes, I hope someone turns me into dirt. 

The Life We Leave screens again on SATURDAY, MAY 16, 2026 at SIFF Cinema Uptown at 1:00 PM. Director JJ Gerber and subjects Micah Truman, Brie Smith, and Katey Houston scheduled to attend.