Died Without Issue | Synopsis of the Film

ABOUT

SYNOPSIS

Rachel is a well-off, childless 50-year old woman who recognizes that she is the last of her line and is headed toward, in the vernacular of old-time obituaries, “dying without issue.” Mining her own past as she looks for a way to leave something of herself behind, she discovers an ancestor who fled the French Revolution and ended up on a Georgia Sea Island with an ill-fated plan to get rich quick. The plan, Rachel discovers, included enslaving the local Gullah-Geechee population and logging the island’s ancient forest of live oak trees. With the island’s modern-day community facing economic, cultural, and ecological pressure as they envision the future of their unique home landscape, what began as an intimate journey into family history evolves into a complex consideration of the legacy of colonialism, and whether one woman can make amends for the sins of her forebears.

As the film wanders across centuries and continents to untangle the threads connecting Sapelo Island’s past and present, a quintessentially American story emerges, of a place defined by both extraction and stewardship, oppression and collaboration, guilt and generosity. On the cultural and ecological crossroads that is Sapelo Island, Died Without Issue explores what happens when inherited wealth evolves into a calling as well as a curse, and when a quest for closure reveals only loose ends.

TEAM

Rustin Thompson / Director
Rustin is a director, cinematographer, editor, and writer based in Seattle. His films include Died Without Issue, The Last Picture Shows, My Mother Was Here, Slow Revolution, Zona Intangible, and 30 Frames A Second. His first book, Get Close: Lean Team Documentary Filmmaking is available from Oxford University Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and independent bookstores. He is also a deejay on KBCS.FM, where he hosts both Road Songs and Night Train.

Rachel Price / Executive Producer and Director
Rachel is an archivist and filmmaker. She is a founder of Moving Image Preservation of Puget Sound, a non-profit which helps museums, non-profit video stores and historical societies assess, digitize and make accessible their video materials. She started Foghorn Features in 2023.