There are two conversations in A Will For The Woods that can be considered. One is the idea of the green burial, an act of laying to rest the deceased that eschews the use of traditional burial methods for the sake of the earth. The second, however, is a much harder conversation about mortality, the inevitability of death, and the power that a peaceful, meaningful burial has on one particular individual. The filmmakers of A Will For The Woods build their documentary for the former and end up leaping into the heart of the latter.
The film follows Clark Wang as he prepares for an inevitably untimely demise and the depth of meaning he finds in his inevitable green burial. What works as an exploration into an environmentally beneficial method of laying to rest becomes a journey with Clark into the kind of person he is and, more importantly, what he leaves behind - both in life and in death.
It is oftentimes difficult to stay as close and as intimate to Clark as the filmmakers do, but there's no question as to the potency of its emotional core: a genuine desire to bear the weight of death with a final meaningful act. It can be much to bear in one sitting, but A Will For The Woods cares deeply for the man it follows, and the depths in which we come to know, understand, and feel for Clark are powerful.
