Michelle Jones
A DOCUMENTARY detailing the journey of his mother’s battle with cancer to his conviction on a charge of procuring her suicide has brought closure to Professor Sean Davison.
“For me it was a way of bringing closure. It brought closure to my story.”
Davison said he was also pleased that he would one day be able to show the movie to his two young children.
“They’ll be able to see the complete story and be able to understand what I did.”
The documentary, directed by Izette Mostert, is showing at the Encounters Film Festival.
Davison, the head of UWC’s DNA Forensics Laboratory, said he was pleased Mostert had told the story, which allowed viewers to see how it had unfolded from beginning to end.
“I am very happy that she brought it together into one story. “
Davison returned home last month after serving five months’ home detention in his native New Zealand.
He went on trial in the country after being arrested in New Zealand in September 2010 on an attempted murder charge.
In a book manuscript that was leaked, he wrote about giving his mother, Patricia Ferguson, 85, a lethal dose of morphine, at her request in 2006.
Ferguson, who had been a medical doctor and had cancer, had previously tried to starve herself to death.
Davison was cleared of attempted murder after agreeing to plead guilty to the lesser charge of procuring the suicide of his mother.
Mostert, who had worked on the documentary for about a year, said she had wanted to tell Davison’s story with no intention of making people feel strongly for or against euthanasia.
“The intent wasn’t to make people change their minds.
“I don’t feel it was my purpose to change their minds.”
She had realised after meeting Davison through a mutual friend and speaking with him that his story would be a good one to tell.
Mostert filmed interviews with Davison on the eve of his return to New Zealand for his trial and showed his departure at Cape Town International Airport.
The documentary also featured interviews with his older siblings, detailed Davison’s close relationship with his mother and showed footage of Ferguson’s funeral.
Mostert said she had been pleased that there had been positive reaction to the documentary, even from people who were opposed to euthanasia.
l The documentary will be shown at the Fugard Theatre on June 17 and at the V&A Waterfront NuMetro on June 23. It will also be screened at Joburg’s Hyde Park NuMetro on June 12 and at The Bioscope on June 17.