Things You Think - When Life Departs

"Things You Think - When Life Departs" is a Film & Magma Films 26 x 10' animated series that incorporates recordings of children's beliefs about topics related to death and dying.
Copyright 2003, A Film APS

[Young child]: Um..You see,

there was this dog
that I was really fond of.

And when they told me that he died

I cried a lot after that.

[Young child]: When you die,

first, you feel all floppy.

And then, you go...and then you go stiff.

[Girl]: Everybody dies at
some point or another.

[Boy]: There's a illness called "cancer"

and you can die very quickly from it.

It must be very powerful, or something.

[Young child]: And babies don't really die a lot.

Um, only when you grow up.

Um...Well, you...you just get too old for your age...

...and you die, but babies don't die much,

so...your brother mightn't die.

When they told me
that my little brother had died...

...I thought that they were just joking
and having a bit of fun.

When I holded him, he was freezing cold.

And then I realized that he was dead.

But when they put him into the coffin, um...

...it made me cry a lot because...

...I had to..I had to say, "Goodbye."

[Young child]: I believe in life
after death, definitely.

Well...

..when you're lying in your coffin...

...it's like you wake up again.

And there's a lift beside you.

And you step into this lift...

...and you go up, up into heaven.

[Young child]: Imagine you're in a tunnel.

You walk through it, and then...

there's a huge city
straight in front of you.

[Young child]: You might meet
your granny, or..

...granddad that died in 1939.

[Young child]: Um...

I think you can't really walk up there.

I think God gives you special feet...

...to walk around up there.

And..and there's this big cloud...

..that you can play football on, like me.

[Girl]: And I think,
if you're buried up in heaven,

you drop straight down to Earth.

[Boy]: I think that when you die,
you lie there and rot.

And your..then your soul
flies up to heaven.

Or maybe down to the devil,
if you've been bad.

[Young child]: There is really a lot of
embers and fire and lava.

Because deep down in the Earth's core
is where Hell is...

..and there is a lot of lava.

[Boy]: It's horrible.

When you're in hell,
the devil locks you in a cage, and...

You...cry out for help.

And...and then he
pulls a lever, and everything goes...

...."PFFF."

The devil wants a person
and God wants a person...

...but it's best to go up to God.

[Young child]: I think
God looks like an old king.

A very old king.

Maybe his brain has been cut up
into thousands of pieces.

I don't know how many people
are in the world, but...

...one of the piece thinks about you,
and another thinks about someone else.

[Young child]: I don't think
there's a God.

[Boy]: I went 'round,
the whole time,

...screaming in pain,
'cause my head hurt so badly.

It's hard to decide what you want to do.

Whether to go to heaven,
or stay with your mum and dad.

But, you can see if you'd prefer
to go up there, and be better..

...or stay down here and live your life.

[Girl]: Well, I went down
to the water's edge.

And then, I just saw these two clouds..

..that looked like
my great granny and granddad.

And then, there was this
other cloud that just..

..came up behind it, and it, uh..

It looked like a chair.

And it looked like they were just
sitting on the chair, waving to me.

But, some people just say
I'm superstitious.

[Boy]: I think that when you die,
you can come back to life...

...as a girl...

...or a boy...

...or a spider...

...or a mouse.

Or something.

[Boy]: Maybe..maybe my brother..

..could come back down
as a duck.

I don't know, really.

And then I could keep him, maybe.

I put my hands together,
and I say,

"Please, please, God,

can I talk to my brother
for one minute? Amen."

Sometimes. um..

I dream about my little brother,

and when he was really, really tiny,

I used to play with him.

and I used to teach him, um, how to walk,

but I know it was a bit soon...

Um...

...but that was fun.

[Girl]: I think a soul..

..is like a thing inside your body.

Like a ghost, really.

[Boy]: You can't live without a soul.

That's what I believe.

[Boy]: It's...your soul that
makes your heart beat.

Maybe...that's what kills you...

...your soul getting weaker and weaker.

[Sounds of children playing,
a girl jumping rope]

[Girl]: Well, to tell you the truth...

...I'm not that scared of dying.

I mean, to think of all the time I have left.

I..I'm not scared about it, not now.