‘Facing East’ (2019): A Sobering Look At A Cemetery’s Scandalous Past – Movie Review

When you lay your loved one to rest, you assume that they will stay there undisturbed forever. But, what if that wasn’t the case? What if human greed was greater than human decency? This terrible scenario is explored in Tommy Baker’s new documentary, Facing East.

Synopsis:

This story follows the history of the most over buried commercial cemetery in America. It comes full circle to present day and documents a non profit’s efforts to take care of the abandoned and abused burial ground.

Since the 1800s, it’s been normal practice at Louisville Kentucky’s Eastern Cemetery to resell already occupied cemetery plots. Essentially, they remove the headstones from an entire section, and then bury more bodies on top of the existing ones. They do this over and over again. Eastern Cemetery has about 16,000 graves, but has the documentation for 138,000 bodies. It wasn’t until 1989 that an employee finally blew this whistle and reported these actions to the Attorney General. While the story made national headlines, no one was ever held legally accountable.

Facing East is told in a combination of interviews with those involved and was done with great sensitivity. I can only begin to imagine the heartbreak of the (mostly poor) families impacted by this terrible deception. They were left to grieve over graves that may or may not hold their loved ones. Sadly, anyone who wanted to move their family member to a new cemetery had to hire an archaeologist to verify the identity of their loved one first.

Eventually, Eastern Cemetery was abandoned and fell into disrepair. Then the Friends of Eastern Cemetery non-profit group stepped in and started cleaning up the cemetery. They have brought a sense of community and dignity back to the area by teaching others to care about the past. A society can be judged by the way we treat their dead.

This was one of the most shocking and, at the same time, moving documentaries I have ever seen. It managed to be both horrifying and uplifting, showing the most selfish side of humanity as well as the most selfless. It’s a dazzling show of talent on the part of the director.

Facing East is a must see!