X-Message-Number: 52
From: Kevin Q. Brown
Subject: Venturist Video Review
Date: 12 Jan 1989

Message #44 announced a $10. cryonics videotape available from:
     The Venturists, 1355 E. Peoria Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85020.
I recently received a copy of it and found it to be a lot of video for the
money.  It has not only a one hour introduction to cryonics but also an hour on
the Dora Kent case, both taped at the May 1988 Life Against Death conference in
Ontario, CA.

The introduction to cryonics was created from interviews of several of the
most active cryonicists who attended the conference.  Overall, this video
should be a good introduction because in addition to presenting many of the
typical questions one may have about cryonics, it also shows these cryonicists
to be intelligent, thoughtful, decent people.  In order of appearance, they are
Carlos Mondragon (President of ALCOR), Mike Darwin (Director of Research at
ALCOR), Jerry Leaf (Head of the Suspension Team and President of Cryovita),
Dave Pizer (President of The Venturists), Keith Henson (famous active member
of ALCOR), and Brian Wowk (outspoken young cryonics author).  The video also
shows several of the ALCOR facilities in Riverside, CA and Dixie, a dog who
survived (in good condition) an ALCOR Total Body Washout experiment in which

she was held at 4 degrees C for four hours without any respiration or heartbeat.

Two problems did somewhat detract from my enjoyment of the video, however.

Even though the editing nicely spliced sections of the interviews to compare and
contrast the views of the various cryonicists, it could not, of course, correct
the lighting problems that made a couple of the interviewees (and backgrounds)
distractingly yellowish-colored.  Also, the title "Cryonics: An Alternate
Approach to Death" and the initial and final scenes unfortunately presented
cryonics more as a death reversal process than a life saving technology.
(Brian Wowk's "Death of Death in Cryonics" article was not published until
Sept. 1988 and the life saving rather than death reversal orientation he
suggested had not yet become firmly implanted in the cryonics community.)
Other than these minor complaints, though, I found this to be a nice
introduction to both cryonics and some of the major people involved in it.

The second hour covered the conference session in which Saul Kent, Jerry Leaf,
Mike Darwin, and Carlos Mondragon recalled the events surrounding the Riverside
County coroner's raids in the Dora Kent case.  If you have not yet heard what
happened, this hour should be quite enlightening.
                                       - Kevin Q. Brown
                                       ...{att|clyde|cuae2}!ho4cad!kqb
                                       

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