The Self-Made Man

On July 4th, Independence Day in the United States, 77-year-old Bob Stern records a video message to his children. The nest day he is expected at the hospital for surgery on an aortal aneurysm that is about to explode. The self-made Stern, who is also suffering from prostate cancer, abhors the prospect of going through a languishing final life phase in a hospital bed. He explains to his children why it is better for him to end his life before that. "It's enough. I'm going to spare you a lot of lingering misery." His daughter Susan Stern uses the tape as the basis for a portrait of her father, whose strong attachment to autonomy makes him an exponent of his generation. Starting as a fur coat salesman, Bob Stern made his way through the real estate sector and developed himself into a pioneer of solar energy. He ran his family like a company as well. Incorporating interviews with relatives, the director demonstrates the impact of her father's radical decision. She raises the question of whether it indicates courage or cowardice, altruism or egoism, because after all, what is a proper death? This issue touches on the euthanasia debate, which is still very much alive in the United States. Finally, Stern also makes The Self-Made Man into a tribute to her father, who loved a spirited debate. He used to decide it with the remark: "That is what you think, but this is what I know." (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)