The green burial movement combines the consecration and mourning of the dead with a desire to correct centuries of pollution and exploitation of the environment through the creation of non-toxic, natural burials that also conserve wilderness.
Drawing the viewer into an intimate but never macabre experience of death, A Will for the Woods centers on Clark Wang, a psychiatrist, classical musician and folk dancer who has been diagnosed with terminal lymphoma. Facing his own mortality, he opts for a "green" burial over what he believes are toxic, wasteful modern funeral arrangements engineered to preserve the body at the ecosystem's expense. In this touching story of a charismatic, ebullient advocate's final days, environmentalism takes on a deeply human intimacy as the film follows Clark's efforts to leave a loving, permanent legacy for family, friends and nature.
Capturing the genesis of a revolutionary social and environmental movement, this film is an affecting and optimistic portrait of people coming to terms with mortality by embracing their connection to timeless natural cycles.
-Chris Metzler