The Legacy Song Project is a documentary following the work of songwriter, music therapist, and end-of-life doula Sarah McInnis as she travels throughout the Maritimes as part of the eponymous project. 

McInnis meets people reaching the end of their lives, as well as people grieving loved ones, and gathers their stories and experiences to create music out of. She herself uses songwriting to process her grief, sharing her skills with others throughout the creative process.

The Legacy Song Project’s driving force is not solely McInnis’ work, but also the interviews conducted with the project’s participants, who share insights and anecdotes about the many different ways one can experience the end of their, or a loved one’s, life. McInnis’ project serves to tie in each individual’s experience, demonstrating a moving catharsis as participants see their and loved ones’ lives preserved through music. 

Shiella Lopes Hines is a 59 year-old living with severe cancer, working with McInnis to create a music legacy for herself. Hines is invested in Eastern religions and believes in living in the moment. This documentary hereby presents the experience of end-of-life not as a time of fear and dread, but rather of focus on the present, on what remains.

McInnis later speaks to the family of Kyle McKay, as they grieve his suicide. Kyle’s mother makes an important note of the importance of language, as she explains her distate for the phrasing “committed suicide”, which she believes makes the act sound like a crime. As McInnis sings “you were bigger than a moment”, The Legacy Song Project conveys an important message: that suicide victims are more than the moment of their deaths.

We also meet 56 year-old Franciska Kouwenhaven, who was diagnosed with a rare cancer at age 50, and is now reaching the end of her life. She is “quite content with dying early” because she’s already lived a fulfilling life, though she still wishes she could have gotten more of that joy out of her life. 

This passage of the documentary describes a poignant metaphor. If life is the journey of the wave to the shore, death is its crash, its most beautiful moment where the wave itself dies, so that the water it is made up of can return to the open sea. The Legacy Song Project portrays a multiplicity of meanings carved out of the end of human life, and the beauty of the wave’s crash induce an unexpected sense of admiration for the dying process and the cyclicality of human life.

As the project’s participants discuss death, the complexity of the event becomes apparent. Trembling voices express fear and loss, as fond ones recount joyous moments. There is not one way to experience death, and the different ways in which The Legacy Song Project’s participants describe it offer touching insights into who they are, and the lives they’ve led.

‍The Legacy Song Project draws on one of the most universal fears of humanity, offering many different perspectives on grief. This film is not only a good watch for those struggling to make sense out of death, it can also help us understand the value of life, and avoid spending the time we do have in fear. Understanding death is not only valuable to make peace with death itself, it is also a key to living a full life.

The 2024 ReFrame Festival runs from January 25th-February 4th. A list of films, tickets to events and screenings, and more information can be found on the Festival Website.