Rushes

Directed by Barry Spinello

Neil (Barry Spinello) turns to the camera and says: "Film everything for the next 24 hours, 'cause I've come to a strong, positive decision - namely, to commit suicide." We then see the last 24 hours of Neil's life: his mother rushed in from NY; an ex-girlfriend; a current girlfriend; a former film professor. We see Neil direct the film from inside the film, and only learn that it is a total fiction as the final credits roll. "For all its excesses ... the film works. It keeps you not only enthralled for an hour, but also entirely involved. Appalled, fearful, saddened, horrified, one finds it impossible not to want to intervene, to interject one's own sensitivity and humanity into the process and guide it to a different finale. RUSHES is an excellent film for a preliminary to a discussion on suicide." - Ruth Backes, "The Filmshelf," New England Journal of Human Services