Frontline

The Undertaking

FRONTLINE profiles Thomas Lynch, a poet and undertaker whose family has cared for the dead in a small town in central Michigan for three generations. In The Undertaking, a critically acclaimed book, Lynch offered unique and profound insight into what he called the "dismal trade." In an intimate and revealing film, Lynch helps makes sense of the ways Americans cope with death, grief, and life. In this film, FRONTLINE enters the world of Thomas Lynch, a poet and undertaker whose family has cared for the dead in a small Michigan town for three generations. Through the intimate stories of families coming to terms with grief, mortality, and a funeral's rituals, the film illuminates the heartbreak and beauty in the journey taken between the living and the dead when someone dies.