Dying to Live Now
Los Angeles, California | Film Short
Documentary
Discover the extraordinary journey of a Stanford mathematician who traded his PhD for Indian ashrams and spent over four decades sitting at the bedsides of the dying. This is what he found.
Dying to Live Now
Los Angeles, California | Film Short
Documentary
1 Campaigns | California, United States
233 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
$27,468
Goal: $25,000 for production phase 2
Discover the extraordinary journey of a Stanford mathematician who traded his PhD for Indian ashrams and spent over four decades sitting at the bedsides of the dying. This is what he found.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
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If you’ve ever lost someone and felt alone in your grief, you’re not alone. This film explores a different way of looking at loss.
This is the story of RamDev Dale Borglum, now 83 years old, who has spent decades supporting thousands of people facing grief and loss. A longtime collaborator and friend of the prolific writers/teachers Ram Dass and Stephen Levine, RamDev embodies a radical truth that death is a doorway to transformation..png)
It's about the transformation that's possible when we courageously face our grief and heal into love itself.
So who is Dale, and why should we tell his story?
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Dale is a San Francisco bay area local who earned a PhD in mathematics from Stanford University. Instead of pursuing a career in Silicon Valley, he embarked on his own kind of study in India in the 60s and 70s, learning directly from renowned spiritual saints including Neem Karoli Baba, Anandamayi Ma, S.N. Goenka (the seminal Vipassana instructor), Sathya Sai Baba, and many others.
But what makes him brilliant in our opinion is that he's eclectic and unflinchingly direct, meeting each person in their own faith tradition, cracking jokes when grief needs breaking, and restoring confidence when there is none.
In 1981 he founded the first residential conscious Dying Center in the US, which has now evolved into his own nonprofit, the Living/Dying Project. This film skillfully weaves together his life story alongside intimate, surprising, revelatory moments of his work with the dying and their caregivers.
We witness the breakthrough moments that happen through true presence during those crucial times.
 (6).jpg)
Our society tends to avoid conversations about death, leaving people isolated in grief without wise guidance... or levity.
This film serves to bridge that gap in a heartfelt and entertaining way that both surprises and connects us to each other's humanity.
Our personal journeys taught us that real change starts when we meet our deepest fears with compassion. Dale explores this idea beautifully in his work, which is why we were drawn to telling this story with the depth it deserves.
"Contemplating death taught me what really mattered. Working with the dying broke my heart open. It gave me a fearlessness to say I love you. Made it easier to apologize. Easier to forgive. This doesn't happen in isolation. Community and recognizing the interdependence of our lives was so much part of this journey and in the filmmaking itself."
- Aurora, Lead Producer
"We all meet grief and death throughout our lives, sometimes we're prepared, often not. I've lost friends and family, and lacked the words or framework to talk about it... This led me to a deeper study of the methods for processing the emotions we're left with after these seismic shifts. Dale spoke with incredible fluency and confidence about the subject, and completely opened my mind and heart to the beauty awaiting us once we turn toward our grief and explore what lies beyond the judgment and fear of it."
- Archie Macpherson, Director
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Archie Macpherson was raised in the Scottish Highlands and has worked as a commercial DOP & Director in London for 12 years, traveling globally and filming for major brands including Toyota, Hilton, and America's Cup. He co-founded Aerial Frontiers, one of the leading drone services for Film and Television in the UK, filming for series such as Outlander, Peaky Blinders and Succession. Archie's work has taken him to the extremes of human experience amidst the humbling forces of nature, from filming the Marathon De Sables ultramarathon in the Sahara, to spending 7 weeks aboard the Ocean Cleanup vessel. Recently he has been documenting Indigenous communities in the Amazon, in their fight to protect their land and culture. His work has earned industry recognition, including a Gold for directing at St. Petersburg international film festival for his short film Lament, plus a D&AD Award and Gold at the Scottish Design Awards for his commercial Scotland at Night
Aurora is a Filipina American producer known for blending emotional depth with creative precision. Her background spans theatre, film, and television with work featured on NBC, HBO, Netflix, Hulu, FX, and more. Her stage and screen work has received recognition including an LA Drama Critics Circle Award nomination. Through her production company Reforest Films, she amplifies the voices of environmental stewardship and social impact, crafting narratives that are as artistically rigorous as they are catalytic. Dying to Live Now marks her debut as a short film producer. Her producing credits include projects centered on Indigenous communities, regenerative farming, and climate resilience.
David is an award winning documentary filmmaker based in Los Angeles. His first documentary feature film Words Can’t Go There premiered at Warsaw International Film Festival, and won Best Documentary Film at The Valley Film Festival in Los Angeles. David has been a Story Producer for Street Food, Seasons 1 and 2 on Netflix, Marvel’s 616 on Disney+, Beyond The Spotlight on Curiosity Stream, Men In Kilts Season 2 on Starz, and Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones on Netflix. David’s passion is for people who are making a difference in society so we can all live more in harmony with the planet. He aims to not only connect people to one another, but to also inspire people to connect more deeply within themselves.
Hannah Haga is a Swedish multidisciplinary creative working across animation, motion design, illustration and art direction. Her practice centers on visual storytelling, blending hand-crafted imagery with digital techniques, and is characterized by a strong sense of mood and narrative. She has worked on a range of projects including documentary animation, music videos, and visual identities for cultural and commercial clients. From her studio in Gothenburg, Sweden she continues to explore the relationship between design and storytelling through both commissioned and independent projects, usually under the relaxed supervision of her dog Bonnie.
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We've self funded this film because we believe in Dale's work and we didn't have the option to wait when willing subjects who were in their final days invited us to film.
Now we need your help to complete this film with the resources and integrity it deserves, which will include finishing the final phase of filming as well as post-production. The film will premiere at festivals in 2027.
Making a documentary, even a short film, requires significant resources. Here's a partial list of what your tax-deductible contributions will help pay for:
• Recoup and cover future production, travel, gear, and insurance costs
• Post Production: Editing, Sound design, Music Composition, Color Grading, Subtitles, Animation (animation and editing are significant costs)
• Legal and administrative costs
• Marketing, Promotion, and distribution
• Music and licensing fees
• Festival deliverables
Through our partnership with E2AC, your contribution can be written off! You'll be able to get perks, a write-off, AND help make an incredible film with a powerful message and beautiful visuals.
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Make a pledge or choose one of the listed incentives to receive perks! We're honored to be making this film alongside community.
You can also support by sharing this page. Send emails to your loved ones. Share this project on social media. Our Instagram and Facebook account is @ReforestFilms. Follow along as the film develops.
Dying to Live Now is fiscally sponsored by E2AC.
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Interested in a more involved role, or want to meet before committing to the Associate or Co-Producer level?
Email us at [email protected] and we can share more about the film and talk about what these roles could look like for you.
.png)
We're grateful to Jai Uttal for allowing us to feature 'Radha Rani' in our campaign video. And to Hannah Haga for allowing us to sample her artwork. Thank you to Jan Adrian (who is in the first photograph) for her courage, kindness and the gift of her presence in this film.
Thank YOU for taking the time to learn about this film! Help us finish this work by contributing and/or sharing it with someone.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Production & Logistics
Costs $8,000
Filming, travel, crew, meals across multiple locations
Editing and Animation
Costs $15,000
Hiring a pro editor and animator is pricey (and worth it!) Animation will elevate the film and help capture what vérité scenes can't.
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Archie Macpherson
Director and Cinematographer
Raised in the Scottish Highlands, he has worked as a commercial DOP & Director in London for 12 years, travelling globally and filming for major brands including Toyota, Hilton, and America's Cup. He co-founded Aerial Frontiers, one of the leading drone services for Film and Television in the UK, filming for series such as Outlander, Peaky Blinders and Succession.
Archie's work has taken him to the extremes of human experience amidst the humbling forces of nature, from filming the Marathon De Sables ultramarathon in the Sahara, to spending 7 weeks aboard the Ocean Cleanup vessel. Recently he has been working with Indigenous communities in the Amazon, in their fight to protect their land and culture. His work has earned industry recognition, including a Gold for directing at St. Petersburg international film festival for his short film Lament, plus a D&AD Award and Gold at the Scottish Design Awards for his commercial Scotland at Night.
Aurora Leonard
Lead Producer
Aurora is a Filipina American producer known for blending emotional depth with creative precision. Her background spans theatre, film, and television, with work featured on NBC, HBO, Netflix, Hulu, and FX. Her stage and screen work has received recognition including an LA Drama Critics Circle Award nomination.
Her producing credits include projects centered on Indigenous communities, regenerative farming, and climate resilience.
David Neptune
Co-Producer & Addtl Cinematography
David is an award winning documentary filmmaker based in Los Angeles. His first documentary feature film Words Can’t Go There premiered at Warsaw International Film Festival, and won Best Documentary Film at The Valley Film Festival in Los Angeles. David has been a story producer for shows like Street Food, Seasons 1 and 2 on Netflix, Marvel’s 616 on Disney+, Beyond The Spotlight on Curiosity Stream, Men In Kilts Season 2 on Starz, and Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones on Netflix.
David’s passion is for people who are making a difference in society so we can all live more in harmony with the planet. He aims to not only connect people to one another, but to also inspire people to connect more deeply within themselves.
Hannah Haga
Animator
Hannah Haga is a Swedish multidisciplinary creative working across animation, motion design, illustration and art direction. Her practice centers on visual storytelling, blending hand-crafted imagery with digital techniques, and is characterized by a strong sense of mood and narrative.
She has worked on a range of projects including documentary animation, music videos, and visual identities for cultural and commercial clients.
From her studio in Gothenburg, Sweden she continues to explore the relationship between design and storytelling through both commissioned and independent projects, usually under the relaxed supervision of her dog Bonnie.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
If you’ve ever lost someone and felt alone in your grief, you’re not alone. This film explores a different way of looking at loss.
This is the story of RamDev Dale Borglum, now 83 years old, who has spent decades supporting thousands of people facing grief and loss. A longtime collaborator and friend of the prolific writers/teachers Ram Dass and Stephen Levine, RamDev embodies a radical truth that death is a doorway to transformation.
It's about the transformation that's possible when we courageously face our grief and heal into love itself.
So who is Dale, and why should we tell his story?
Dale is a San Francisco bay area local who earned a PhD in mathematics from Stanford University. Instead of pursuing a career in Silicon Valley, he embarked on his own kind of study in India in the 60s and 70s, learning directly from renowned spiritual saints including Neem Karoli Baba, Anandamayi Ma, S.N. Goenka (the seminal Vipassana instructor), Sathya Sai Baba, and many others.
But what makes him brilliant in our opinion is that he's eclectic and unflinchingly direct, meeting each person in their own faith tradition, cracking jokes when grief needs breaking, and restoring confidence when there is none.
In 1981 he founded the first residential conscious Dying Center in the US, which has now evolved into his own nonprofit, the Living/Dying Project. This film skillfully weaves together his life story alongside intimate, surprising, revelatory moments of his work with the dying and their caregivers.
We witness the breakthrough moments that happen through true presence during those crucial times.
Our society tends to avoid conversations about death, leaving people isolated in grief without wise guidance... or levity.
This film serves to bridge that gap in a heartfelt and entertaining way that both surprises and connects us to each other's humanity.
Our personal journeys taught us that real change starts when we meet our deepest fears with compassion. Dale explores this idea beautifully in his work, which is why we were drawn to telling this story with the depth it deserves.
"Contemplating death taught me what really mattered. Working with the dying broke my heart open. It gave me a fearlessness to say I love you. Made it easier to apologize. Easier to forgive. This doesn't happen in isolation. Community and recognizing the interdependence of our lives was so much part of this journey and in the filmmaking itself."
- Aurora, Lead Producer
"We all meet grief and death throughout our lives, sometimes we're prepared, often not. I've lost friends and family, and lacked the words or framework to talk about it... This led me to a deeper study of the methods for processing the emotions we're left with after these seismic shifts. Dale spoke with incredible fluency and confidence about the subject, and completely opened my mind and heart to the beauty awaiting us once we turn toward our grief and explore what lies beyond the judgment and fear of it."
- Archie Macpherson, Director
Archie Macpherson was raised in the Scottish Highlands and has worked as a commercial DOP & Director in London for 12 years, traveling globally and filming for major brands including Toyota, Hilton, and America's Cup. He co-founded Aerial Frontiers, one of the leading drone services for Film and Television in the UK, filming for series such as Outlander, Peaky Blinders and Succession. Archie's work has taken him to the extremes of human experience amidst the humbling forces of nature, from filming the Marathon De Sables ultramarathon in the Sahara, to spending 7 weeks aboard the Ocean Cleanup vessel. Recently he has been documenting Indigenous communities in the Amazon, in their fight to protect their land and culture. His work has earned industry recognition, including a Gold for directing at St. Petersburg international film festival for his short film Lament, plus a D&AD Award and Gold at the Scottish Design Awards for his commercial Scotland at Night
Aurora is a Filipina American producer known for blending emotional depth with creative precision. Her background spans theatre, film, and television with work featured on NBC, HBO, Netflix, Hulu, FX, and more. Her stage and screen work has received recognition including an LA Drama Critics Circle Award nomination. Through her production company Reforest Films, she amplifies the voices of environmental stewardship and social impact, crafting narratives that are as artistically rigorous as they are catalytic. Dying to Live Now marks her debut as a short film producer. Her producing credits include projects centered on Indigenous communities, regenerative farming, and climate resilience.
David is an award winning documentary filmmaker based in Los Angeles. His first documentary feature film Words Can’t Go There premiered at Warsaw International Film Festival, and won Best Documentary Film at The Valley Film Festival in Los Angeles. David has been a Story Producer for Street Food, Seasons 1 and 2 on Netflix, Marvel’s 616 on Disney+, Beyond The Spotlight on Curiosity Stream, Men In Kilts Season 2 on Starz, and Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones on Netflix. David’s passion is for people who are making a difference in society so we can all live more in harmony with the planet. He aims to not only connect people to one another, but to also inspire people to connect more deeply within themselves.
Hannah Haga is a Swedish multidisciplinary creative working across animation, motion design, illustration and art direction. Her practice centers on visual storytelling, blending hand-crafted imagery with digital techniques, and is characterized by a strong sense of mood and narrative. She has worked on a range of projects including documentary animation, music videos, and visual identities for cultural and commercial clients. From her studio in Gothenburg, Sweden she continues to explore the relationship between design and storytelling through both commissioned and independent projects, usually under the relaxed supervision of her dog Bonnie.
We've self funded this film because we believe in Dale's work and we didn't have the option to wait when willing subjects who were in their final days invited us to film.
Now we need your help to complete this film with the resources and integrity it deserves, which will include finishing the final phase of filming as well as post-production. The film will premiere at festivals in 2027.
Making a documentary, even a short film, requires significant resources. Here's a partial list of what your tax-deductible contributions will help pay for:
• Recoup and cover future production, travel, gear, and insurance costs
• Post Production: Editing, Sound design, Music Composition, Color Grading, Subtitles, Animation (animation and editing are significant costs)
• Legal and administrative costs
• Marketing, Promotion, and distribution
• Music and licensing fees
• Festival deliverables
Through our partnership with E2AC, your contribution can be written off! You'll be able to get perks, a write-off, AND help make an incredible film with a powerful message and beautiful visuals.
Make a pledge or choose one of the listed incentives to receive perks! We're honored to be making this film alongside community.
You can also support by sharing this page. Send emails to your loved ones. Share this project on social media. Our Instagram and Facebook account is @ReforestFilms. Follow along as the film develops.
Dying to Live Now is fiscally sponsored by E2AC.
Interested in a more involved role, or want to meet before committing to the Associate or Co-Producer level?
Email us at [email protected] and we can share more about the film and talk about what these roles could look like for you.
We're grateful to Jai Uttal for allowing us to feature 'Radha Rani' in our campaign video. And to Hannah Haga for allowing us to sample her artwork. Thank you to Jan Adrian (who is in the first photograph) for her courage, kindness and the gift of her presence in this film.
Thank YOU for taking the time to learn about this film! Help us finish this work by contributing and/or sharing it with someone.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Production & Logistics
Costs $8,000
Filming, travel, crew, meals across multiple locations
Editing and Animation
Costs $15,000
Hiring a pro editor and animator is pricey (and worth it!) Animation will elevate the film and help capture what vérité scenes can't.
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Archie Macpherson
Director and Cinematographer
Raised in the Scottish Highlands, he has worked as a commercial DOP & Director in London for 12 years, travelling globally and filming for major brands including Toyota, Hilton, and America's Cup. He co-founded Aerial Frontiers, one of the leading drone services for Film and Television in the UK, filming for series such as Outlander, Peaky Blinders and Succession.
Archie's work has taken him to the extremes of human experience amidst the humbling forces of nature, from filming the Marathon De Sables ultramarathon in the Sahara, to spending 7 weeks aboard the Ocean Cleanup vessel. Recently he has been working with Indigenous communities in the Amazon, in their fight to protect their land and culture. His work has earned industry recognition, including a Gold for directing at St. Petersburg international film festival for his short film Lament, plus a D&AD Award and Gold at the Scottish Design Awards for his commercial Scotland at Night.
Aurora Leonard
Lead Producer
Aurora is a Filipina American producer known for blending emotional depth with creative precision. Her background spans theatre, film, and television, with work featured on NBC, HBO, Netflix, Hulu, and FX. Her stage and screen work has received recognition including an LA Drama Critics Circle Award nomination.
Her producing credits include projects centered on Indigenous communities, regenerative farming, and climate resilience.
David Neptune
Co-Producer & Addtl Cinematography
David is an award winning documentary filmmaker based in Los Angeles. His first documentary feature film Words Can’t Go There premiered at Warsaw International Film Festival, and won Best Documentary Film at The Valley Film Festival in Los Angeles. David has been a story producer for shows like Street Food, Seasons 1 and 2 on Netflix, Marvel’s 616 on Disney+, Beyond The Spotlight on Curiosity Stream, Men In Kilts Season 2 on Starz, and Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones on Netflix.
David’s passion is for people who are making a difference in society so we can all live more in harmony with the planet. He aims to not only connect people to one another, but to also inspire people to connect more deeply within themselves.
Hannah Haga
Animator
Hannah Haga is a Swedish multidisciplinary creative working across animation, motion design, illustration and art direction. Her practice centers on visual storytelling, blending hand-crafted imagery with digital techniques, and is characterized by a strong sense of mood and narrative.
She has worked on a range of projects including documentary animation, music videos, and visual identities for cultural and commercial clients.
From her studio in Gothenburg, Sweden she continues to explore the relationship between design and storytelling through both commissioned and independent projects, usually under the relaxed supervision of her dog Bonnie.