Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Gavin Velasquez Murray.
On the surface, writer/director Chelsea Christer’s short film “Out for Delivery” adds a comedic, yet realistic, lens to what it means for someone to choose to die with dignity. As viewers delve deeper, however, Christer’s film showcases the importance of having human connections in a world where it is so easy to be isolated.
In “Out for Delivery,” terminally ill Joanna (Deanna Rooney) chooses to pursue end-of-life options through the Death with Dignity Act, which is a law that allows terminally ill people to request and receive medication to end their lives on their own time. This law is intended to give people with terminal illnesses more control over their end-of-life care.
While there is a fear that this Act may cause disabled people to be pressured to end their lives prematurely, “Out for Delivery” aims to show that for people like Joanna, the Death with Dignity Act may enable her to take control of her life.
However, while Joanna aims to find a way to die with dignity, the delivery of her medication is continuously delayed and delivered incorrectly. Through Rooney’s acting and Christer’s directing, audiences feel Joanna’s sadness and frustration. It is not until Joanna interacts with a man from the morgue that she is able to restore dignity in her death.
“I find myself so consistently frustrated with the systems that are in place to make our lives easier and more seamless, but, really, it just makes us more disconnected from each other,” Christer said in an interview with Sundance. “With this film, I wanted to explore how those processes fail us. In order to live and maybe die dignified, we really just need to make genuine human connections with the people around us.”
Christer first volunteered for the Sundance Film Festival as a film student in 2010, where she both learned more about storytelling and found a community. Now her film “Out for Delivery” is screening at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival as part of the Short Film Program 2. In addition to screening in both Park City and Salt Lake City, this film is available online. Some films in this short film program contain strobe effects.
