HBO’s New Documentary Asks You to Talk About Death

Dick Shannon knew he was dying. He had been living with a terminal-cancer diagnosis for two years. He had discussed options with his doctors and his wife, Deleaua, and he’d accepted that “there’s nothing I can do to stop it,” he says in HBO’s new documentary . That acceptance gave rise to different sorts of discussions: conversations about his life would end. “My observation about the way people die, at least in America, is they … are not allowed the opportunity to be part death … Don’t tell me what I have to do.”