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The Company of the Dead

Project Director: Penelope Maunsell

Producer / Director / Screenwriter: Penelope Maunsell

Based on the short story by Reynolds Price

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The Company Of The Dead image

photo: Roger Manley

The Company of the Dead is the story of two 12-year-old boys who, in the early part of the 20th century in the rural Carolinas, are paid one dollar each to sit up all night with the dead. To the boys this is a fortune, and a great opportunity to observe dead people and the extraordinary procedures done by embalmers and funeral parlors to keep the dead body looking good.

This is a short movie based on Reynolds Price's short story, The Company of the Dead documents the work of one of the South's most internationally known writers.