Consider the Conversation 2: Stories about Cure, Relief and Comfort warns doctors, patients and families of the physical and emotional harm caused by aggressive, often unnecessary, end of life treatments. The documentary, produced by Michael Bernhagen and Terry Kaldhusdal, offers inspiring stories from seriously ill patients and practical advice from medical experts.

The failure of many doctors to compassionately explain difficult news causes many patients to continue harsh cancer therapies and miss opportunities for earlier hospice or palliative medicine– designed to comfort the terminally ill in the last months of life. Instead, many Americans die in intensive care units or bleed to death from surgery or other complications, often away from family.

“It’s all about how you approach the patient,” said Dr. Diane Meier, director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care. “If doctors can’t bear to tell the truth,” she adds, “patients and families may never get the opportunity to say goodbye to each other.”

In the film, Meier uses the Sept. 11 attacks as an extreme example of what most patients want at the end of life: time to say “I love you.” Several individuals aboard hijacked planes left heartfelt messages for their families on answering machines in their final moments.

Laura Schuman, diagnosed with metastic lung cancer, said doctors gave her the amount of information she believes she could handle, a benefit allowing her to plan for her own death while remaining hopeful.

“I know that I need to be prepared,” said Schuman, a 52-year-old mother. “I’m planning on living,” she tells her family, “but we do need to keep this in mind.” She stores her valuables and family trinkets in clearly marked plastic storage bins, some with a handwritten note on top explaining the significance of the contents.

But not all patients are as fortunate.

Dr. Anthony Galanos, medical director of inpatient palliative care at Duke University Medical Center, said patients without advance health care directives are often pushed by family to continue artificial nutrition or opt for risky procedures.

“Don’t take away the machines,” was one family’s request that their terminally ill father be kept alive by all means possible. “But he wouldn’t have wanted any of this,” the mother replies.Internal family conflicts are also more likely to occur in the absence of effective doctor-patient communication.

Dr. James A. Tulsky, chief of Duke Palliative Care, urges doctors to value “shared decision-making” instead of acting impartially. Shared decision-making occurs when a doctor explains treatment options, facts and statistics to the patient, and then listens for the patient’s concerns and wishes. “Then I can make my recommendation,” Tulsky said. “That is the ideal.”

Bernhagen and Kaldhusdal struggled to raise funding for the film, which at times makes heavy use of stock footage, old photographs and family videos; a few scenes have poor audio.

At its best moments, the regional Emmy-nominated documentary transcends its minimal production, encouraging open discussion of death. Their first film, A Documentary on a Taboo Subject, released in 2011, focused on the spiritual and physical struggles faced by the seriously ill.

“Death is a subject that’s still taboo, but people want to talk about it,” Kaldhusdal told Life Matters Media. “This film is about doctors, but you can’t talk about doctors and not talk about patients. This film is for all of us.”

The director’s cut was screened at the Oconomowoc Wisconsin Arts Center on Oct. 4.