In some ways this week’s lineup is a sequel to the March 12, 2008 This Weekend’s Film Festival theme of “life and death.” However, this week’s five films deal with the latter more directly. Some tackle the issue of dying, or in one case not wanting to die, in satirical ways. One of the entries is a bittersweet drama about a dying man whose last days are filled with family and friends. Two films deal with the troubled health care system. And the final two films argue opposite sides of what to do when one is left disabled. THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY inspired this week’s films. It’s a lineup I have been looking forward to ever since I first say Julian Schnabel’s daring and heartbreaking portrait of a man left prisoner in his own body who inspires with his will to live.

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