Death is Our Business (full documentary) | FRONTLINE
[Music] [Music] new orleans is this very complex combination of suffering [Music] and joy katrina forced us to think a lot about what does it mean to heal and i think we're having a similar experience with kovid and this pandemic how do individuals come back from extreme loss loss of family members loss of what was normal how do you find your way back new orleans the city with the highest death rate in the country streets typically vibrant with music and tourists empty tonight meantime the hospitals are filled and rapidly running out of supplies things were being said about whether you could or couldn't have a funeral whether you should or shouldn't the real concern was whether or not you came into contact with a live host of covet 19. and so brass band processions and horse and carriage processions are currently not in play the idea of the jazz funeral is actually to help the family and the journey from the church to the burying ground it's a process where you can not only think and reflect but you have people that are there to support you we're jazz funeral town it's hard to tell the family you can't have a jazz funeral but we have to that is very painful particularly to a city like the city of new orleans how we celebrate life and how we celebrate death [Music] you know you say look there's a limit i'm sorry you can't come in people start crying they get emotional they get filled up people you want to say goodbye but this covert is a very dangerous thing you got to be afraid because we got 12 bodies back there right now maybe four of them have the copy i had to cover it and then i exposed my wife to it and a lot of my people on the staff has gotten a covert it's all around us people talk about first responders but we in the funeral industry we are last responders even though we deal with death on a daily basis it's still hard no matter how cautious or how safety minded we were we're still on the front line the nature of our business is risky we have a job to do death is our business pull that one further over come on come on come on come on that's husband and wife the culvert is rampant right now i mean we still are going up in louisiana i know that very well because the death rate is still hot no no okay just put that picture back in no matter what funeral home you talked in this town everybody's busy too much okay take it out [Music] what you said mr john all right i'm doing fine bro i'm great i'm great i've been running the weather for a while i i had to call it i had to cover in march and you're walking out without a man i got it right here put them put the flowers back further in that corner right there put that stand back all right let's go get the people in we'll get the family to come in here but the siblings are going to go in the front office come over here and this time we're going to exit everyone's stand as the family proceeds [Music] you're gonna feel people's emotion in this business people have a joke you know let me feel the funeral director's hands their hands are very cold that's not true i'm almost like a touchy feely person you know somebody needs a hug but because of the pandemic you can't do that now father we come to you yeah with our hearts heavy lord we thank you for the opportunity to share darylan yeah yeah just as as with katrina everybody said you know we're gonna we're gonna bounce back in six months well it was 10 years the burden is heavy and i think it's gonna be the same way with this covet but the yolk is light [Applause] i just want to thank everybody uh i'm louis yeah and uh we're gonna let some of you all really who are from atlanta really feel that good new orleans style of music but we just couldn't couldn't do with the kovic thing uh but uh tomorrow will be a beautiful celebration at franklin avenue and i want to remind y'all you do not want to be late [Music] sharpening funeral home is one of the oldest black funeral homes in the country we've been around since 1883. my father made caskets on this very site [Music] back in the early 1800s blacks were buried in barns and hostiles we were buried the way we were buried because uh we couldn't be buried by white funeral homes and uh so we we started out real early to make sure that we had a proper place to be buried in a proper facility to have a funeral service in black funeral homes became a business and a truly significant business in the black community [Music] [Music] within community black funeral homes have had an opportunity to transition generational wealth my great grandmother zoe was actually married to richard rhodes she was a seamstress he was a slave and together they came and built what was a life here in new orleans something that has shifted since covid is our front doors are no longer accessible by the public we're receiving everyone through our side lobby prior to kovid we would host a jazz funeral or a horse and carriage procession pretty regularly with a js band and the opportunity for any onlookers to join in the celebration all of those things have been limited so under current restrictions we're not having bands within the city to play music to promote a second line amongst the community the state has confirmed a presumptive positive test for coronavirus in orleans parish back in march when things took a significant turn for me there were markers one of my colleagues passed away from kovitt her passing touched everybody she was a light within our organization so for her to pass people were like if it could happen to her it could happen to me [Music] everybody knew that they had to do things differently the significant shift came that following week the phone started to ring non-stop we were seeing our people die daily it was pretty unbelievable everybody was working seven days a week and so the toll it became heavy typically you know maybe do four or five cases a day during the time that the height of the pandemic you know at some point we were doing 12 you know to 15 cases a day we had an influx of bodies so we had to create another space for us to hold our bodies at times this room were you know we're full with um with bodies it's been a very stressful time it was like we were playing russian roulette with our own lives for a long time i did not see my family i didn't see them for like two months because you know my life was going to work and taking care of the covey cases i did not want to bring that home to my family we all know of you know loved ones or family or friends that have died because of covet 19.
and um that's been very difficult i'm sorry now to some sad news from the music world ellis marsalis the jazz pianist and patriarch of a musical family has died the cbs station in new orleans says marsalis passed away after being hospitalized with coronavirus symptoms rosales was the father of a musical family known all over the world for its contributions to jazz i knew him as a spectator an appreciator of his music but we also knew what ellis had done because of the generation of musicians who were his students harry connick is one his sons he had a battle with cancer on the one hand we were expecting that his time was soon but kovitt kind of sped things up he was buried april 4th and we had about 10 people there i can only imagine what it would have looked like prior to the pandemic [Music] there would have been a second line in a jazz procession the ritual of actually celebrating a life especially a life like that is what we do here and we couldn't so many laid to rest without our tears or the toning of the bell no kaddish as in ellie weasel's night last night ellis marsalis went away piano keys tug at their locks and rend their robes and each and their seclusion weeps so silently no second line no coming home of acolytes the many musicians daughters and sons none may return to ring the bell to celebrate to mourn [Music] in solitude we remember in cells of marble or made of simpler things we weep [Music] corvid was just taking hold when it began to spread across the country so rapidly when the death rate was climbing so uh very rapidly it became pretty obvious that this was different why most viruses are either contagious or deadly this virus was both contagious and deadly so now we were dealing with a different kind of disease what we've seen is hypertension diabetes hyperlipidemia and even obesity in conjunction with coronavirus have led to devastating effects particularly in minority communities coronavirus didn't show us anything we don't already know right there's always been health care disparities without a doubt this pandemic hit the black community disproportionately our city suffered pre-covet from large disparity gaps as related to health for example out of 566 deaths 410 were black residents it's the lack of resources access to power in authority over one's life to create the kind of circumstances that optimally one would like with the american dream eventually creates whether in the biologic wearing and tearing on our bodies but it is highly unlikely that the disproportionate impact of cobit mortality and morbidity in the african-american community is based on genetics initially the people were trying to say all these underlying conditions well these underlying health conditions are a result of the inequities these outcomes are very predictable i'm not surprised this is 400 years of creating an environment that was right for this carnage to happen and to overcome the black community i think this virus is going to be around with us for a while and we're going to be suffering the ill effects of it on the human body the economy everything everything that was normal about how we used to be has had to change if we want to be safe and survive so in this business in particular now a funeral director has to think out of the box in order to survive does that look any better black funeral homes have to be very very conscious they have to watch their dollars very closely and they have to be creative and they got to be willing to to take a chance to do certain things we about ready [Music] i'm going to put on my and tell the story how i made it over yes [Music] so i'm [Music] i get [Music] i struggled mightily once i got the news i mean i'm talking i was messed up real bad my mama loved me and my sister she loved every single church let me tell y'all something we might have to do this again next year on the same day but do you realize it'd be standing room only 2020 i don't care about you but this covey man it'd be wall of wall we have to hug so many people and hear so many different stories of what she meant to everybody every single person the time that people come to us that are at their lowest they're really at the bottom of their wits try to bring some levity to a funeral arrangement you know instead of just being all sad uh if i can find that one that one silver lining it helps so much please walk behind me please walk behind [Music] i want to give my people the best that i can possibly afford to give them i had to get special authorization to bring the horse and carriages to the church i had to get super special permission to allow the band to be on church grounds that feeling was very brief it was just a little taste of noise we stayed on the church grounds and when you go on the street it becomes a second line and the second line is not necessarily the immediate participants as anybody who's on the street so we didn't we didn't want any of that [Music] [Applause] [Applause] okay every two or three weeks the limitations and the number of people that can attend the funeral is always changing so we gotta keep up with the mayors in the governor's request about how many people contend a funeral in a closed building currently covet 19 is in phase two now indoor gatherings can be 25 people and outdoor gatherings can be 500 but we have a large service coming up bigger than normal during this pandemic tonight we are remembering a well-known mardi gras indian queen taken from us too soon kim cutie booty was gunned down in a double shooting in new orleans east last night someone opened fire on a crowd outside of an event on reed boulevard boute was leaving a repast when the gunfire started we're having the drive-through visitation we're also planning for a funeral service and a second line we are working with the mayor's office we're working with the city and the family to provide a service that is going to best allow folks to participate in all of the celebration while keeping everyone safe kim boute's funeral is going to be very large i'm saying scary large because of the pandemic [Music] we anticipated a flood of people outside we have upwards of a thousand people but the number of loud in the building is restricted we committed to 100 seats on the floor for family anything above that we did not promise a seat excuse me the city of new orleans is about to do a count they will not allow us to begin the service until there is a hundred that's covered instructions from the mayor [Music] if we can't get a hundred people these people gonna shut us down and we will not be on the mother's sister that [Music] happened [Music] they're going to start the program you all will go up to your phone okay good morning family friends and esteemed guests at this time we'll begin celebrating the life and legacy of big queen kim lynn cutie boutique i'm reading this proclamation on behalf of the mayor because the mayor allowed us to do this she allow us to go over the covet regulations we need to be mindful of that she gonna get some backlash but she believes in the culture of this city and whereas kim lynn boutique was the big queen of the spirit of fy yah yah the mandingo warriors i said she was the big queen of the spirit of fai yaya and the landing warriors she was the big queen [Music] she was a big queen [Music] [Applause] knowing that we were trusted to deliver services that were under restriction however given a little bit more leeway is a huge accomplishment for us of course it's not over yet [Music] [Music] but there are 35 indian tribes that have come the family the community the indian culture they are all fluid and moving and no one is standing stationary every organization said that we were going to stand up and work together [Music] i don't believe here in new orleans we'll ever get to a type of funeral that is not a celebration even if it's not a band if someone is traveling with a boombox and they've got some second line music here people will find a way to celebrate [Music] someone's life when they have ended their journey through this existence there's a beautiful way in which the celebration makes it just a little bit better [Music] there's just letting all this pain and suffering go and i feel that it's clearly an african retention that we've held on to and i think this is what new orleans does so beautifully [Music] every day i feel like we're seeing some light at the end of the tunnel [Music] and i'm looking forward to the day that we could move around without wearing a mask that we could feel more comfortable greeting our loved ones that we don't have to be fearful when the phone ring you know from our family members that you know someone had passed i would hate to think that this is our new normal [Music] [Music] we've had such injuries directed at our communities but we have to heal ourselves we also have to fight for justice and the two things have to go together each generation has had to dream and say there is a possibility and what katrina and coronavirus taught us is that we have to continue to believe and imagine freedom and move towards it for more on this and other frontline programs visit our website at pbs.org frontline [Music] front lines death is our business and love life and the virus are available on amazon prime video [Music] you
2021-03-25 10:00
