Vanishing: A Love Story
A documentary about award-winning novelist Cai Emmons and her loving,
open-hearted journey towards death.
2025 | Running Time: 1 Hour 47 Minutes | Rating: NR
Cai was diagnosed with ALS in 2021, at the age of 70. Vanishing: A Love Story takes place in 2022, during the last six-months of Cai’s life. The film is first and foremost about the agency of expression —having a voice to create a legacy in the world. End-of life decisions, self-determination and personal agency are the major topics and themes of the film, in a cultural climate that shies away from deep thought and discussion about them.
“Sandra Luckow’s Vanishing offers an almost shockingly close-up view of a life well lived and arguably well ended. Focused raptly on the late author Cai Emmons, the film is documented from so deep within her home and intimate circle that at times it also seems to have been shot from inside her head. Emmons is the intellectual driver of Vanishing—but it’s Luckow’s principled humility before her subject, and before the inescapable realities of illness and death, that enable this film to begin in voicelessness and dissolution and end in eloquent affirmation.”
Stuart Klawans, NATIONAL MAGAZINE AWARD WINNER FOR REVIEWS AND CRITICISM