Mortician Movie Stars & Stones on Ski Lifts | 4M #25

Welcome to the twenty-fifth edition of Morticians’ Monday Morning Mashup, where we’ll serve up bite-sized, easily-digestible nuggets of the deathcare news you need to crush conversations in the week ahead. Bon appetit!

Who do you want to play you in the film version?

There are already thousands of movies out there about people with cool jobs, like cops, government agents, and jewel thieves. But have you also noticed that more and more characters on both the silver and small screens are deathcare workers? No, you don’t nab perps or participate in high-speed chases (or do you?), but what you do is pretty interesting, and it looks like more and more producers and screenwriters are noticing it.

One such production is Chasing the Dead, a movie created in New Jersey that has won more than 30 film festival awards. The film features two nonfiction themes, one of which follows a mortician as she looks for her birth mother and at the same time gathers abandoned cremains of veterans and provides them a respectful burial with full military honors. Best of all, the movie itself was funded entirely by veterans, many of whom appear in the film — along with gravediggers, coroners, and morticians!

Another deathcare-themed production debuted last week in Miami. Las Lloronas is a “hyper-realistic theatrical show” that “introduces the audience to the historical practice of professional mourners and how it was utilized in a fictional Cuban funeral home in the 1950s.” It was written by Miguel Maspons, a Miami-born attorney and third-generation funeral home owner. Talk about side gigs! Wow!

Last week on DeathTok …

Yep, we predicted this might become a regular feature as more and more morticians take to TikTok to talk about what they do. Not that it’s a bad thing! In fact, giving folks a peek behind the curtain helps to dispel the mystery and misconceptions of deathcare. Last week we learned about Evie Rodriguez, an Illinois funeral director and embalmer who goes by @retseleve and has 224,000+ followers. In Part 43 of her series “Products you will find at a funeral home,” Evie demonstrates how dental formers work, using a mannequin head as her prop.

They “went with the team with the stones!”

Congratulations to our friend, former Connecting Directors editor, and current Parting Stone rock star (see what we did there?) Justin Crowe and his team for winning the $10,000 grand prize (and lots of well-deserved recognition by VCs) at the Ski Lift Pitch contest in Taos, New Mexico last month! The description of this competition sounds more like an episode of Ninja Warrior than Shark Tank — competitors have to deliver their pitch on why they deserve funding while riding a ski lift! Parting Stone’s production manager Kelse Lighthizer delivered the winning lift pitch, beating out two other finalists (including a virtual air hockey game). We’re proud of you, Team Parting Stone!

FAKE NEWS!!!!!

Fake news, misinformation, opposing viewpoints, call it whatever you want- it’s everywhere! In fact, we’ve even heard people say, “live streaming funeral services is so difficult!”

Well well well, Get some mustard and a little bit of bread, cause that’s bologna!

MemoryShare makes it simple for your funeral home to live stream, save, and get the most out of every service. The app makes it super easy, and you can record your full service with the touch of a button. Also, by sharing these streams with your community, you showcase your excellent service and create name recognition with the viewers.

Two things funeral homes need in 2022 are visibility and increased call volume. MemoryShare provides both of these things as well as a team of REAL people you can talk to if you ever run into trouble.

Don’t believe the lies! Learn more about MemoryShare today!