Chapters

The DVD version of The Man Who Learned to Fall is comprised of twenty chapters. The accompanying insert includes a series of annotated personal notes written by Dr. Balfour Mount, Eric M. Flanders Professor of Palliative Medicine, McGill University. Intended to stimulate discussion and reflection, these notes by Dr. Mount encourage viewers to review the film and explore the significance each scene might have in their own lives.

“I know that, given the chance, Phil would have us join him on the porch to drink in the cool evening New Hampshire air and ponder the mystery of it all. We would find him, eyes twinkling, delightfully engaged and fully present, razor sharp and acutely discerning. We would be prodded into looking at ourselves afresh. When it came time to call it a day we would leave, each with our own personal set of notes that record our reflections.”

Dr. Balfour Mount

Special Feature

Phil Simmons: Reflections on Healing
Harvard Medical School, March 20, 2001
At the invitation of Harvard Medical School Phil participated in a symposium entitled ‘What is Healing?’ at the Harvard campus. The evening was chaired by H.M.S. Associate Dean Dan Lowenstein. Rabbi Laurence Kushner and Dr. Balfour Mount were invited by Phil to join him in addressing the seminar topic as representatives of religion and healthcare respectively. Each speaker was allotted 20 minutes; there followed an open discussion with the Harvard faculty and students. The progression of perspectives – from medical, to religious, to Phil’s, led all present from the prosaic to the rarified. Phil’s wonderfully distilled wisdom was conveyed with his usual incomparable gift of expression and sparkling wit. It was a presentation that none present will forget! New York filmmaker Ruth Drazen has graciously agreed to donate Phil’s Harvard symposium footage to this DVD in order that his message on that memorable evening might be available to all.