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Pittsburgh, PA — March 17, 2025 — The Warhol Creative and Animal Studio present Death: The Life of Mike Egan, a short documentary directed by Doug Helmick that charts visual artist Mike Egan’s long obsession with death and the hope and creative inspiration that can come from living a life of contemplating mortality. Death premiered at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh in December 2024 and is currently screening at select festivals.
A Pittsburgh-area native, Egan faced limited career prospects after graduation from Edinboro University Of PA. His first job at the Pittsburgh International Airport was immediately thwarted by tragedy; his first day of work happened to be September 11th, 2001, and he was subsequently laid off. He then pursued training and work as an embalmer and funeral director, becoming intimately acquainted with varying human responses to the arrival of the end of life. During this period, Egan began to paint with more frequency, using mortality as his primary subject matter. After years of work, he was able to dedicate himself to his artistic practice full-time, which only deepened his relationship to the concept of dying. The film tracks Egan’s constant awareness of his mortality and the motivation that those experiences gave him to pursue a career in painting. Throughout the short, Egan argues that a certain richness can be found in life when one refuses to look away from their ephemerality.
“This film is a very personal reflection on my life,” says Mike Egan. “It’s been an incredible experience working with Doug Helmick to verbalize the importance I’ve found in focusing on death after exploring it visually for so long. I hope my perspective gives people permission to start conversations about what it means to pursue a full, curious life.”
Helmick captures Egan’s expressive, skull-covered, memento mori paintings both finished and in progress in his studio, where the word DEATH is affixed to the wall in black lettering. Shots of Egan’s works, reminiscent of stained glass windows with bold colors and stark lines, appear throughout the film. Some of his skulls tend to evoke pure feelings of grief and sadness, but many summon a more complex mixture of emotions.
Egan shares his story as he works, using imagery of temporality to walk the audience through his childhood, his introduction to both the fine arts and the funeral industry, and his exploration of viewing the inevitability of death as essential to the discovery of meaning and purpose. At the end of the film, Egan transforms his works into the panels of a coffin, which seems not yet ready to hold a body but to instead sit beside him and accompany him through life. Though death looms, Helmick illuminates Egan’s endeavor to live an active, intentional, emotion-filled existence.
“When making Death, I wanted to get back to my roots,” says director Doug Helmick. “I wanted to feel like I did when I was young, just making films for the love of storytelling. Mike’s story took me on a journey of creative execution and inspired me to push myself further in my process. He has a quote, ‘I celebrate life by painting death.’ That was something that really spoke to me. Growing up with my father working in the death industry and being surrounded by it, it’s a subject that’s near and dear to my heart. We only have so much time on this Earth and I want to make the most of every second.” says director Doug Helmick.
Following its December 2024 premiere at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Death: The Life of Mike Egan will be shown at the AmDocs Film Festival on March 27, 2025 and the Cleveland International Film Festival on April 1, 2025.
ABOUT ANIMAL STUDIO
We are Animal. Passionate—and a little obsessive—content creators, on a mission to bring new stories to life. We strive to create a collaborative space in which we can experiment and play with original ideas. We value our relationships and aim to reflect our love of the human spirit in all of our projects. The team is dedicated to finding fresh ideas and perspectives in all aspects—of people, animals and objects.
ABOUT THE WARHOL CREATIVE
At the confluence of artistic endeavor, youth empowerment, and professional production, The Andy Warhol Museum’s boutique production studio, The Warhol Creative, develops and produces theater-quality documentaries, broadcast-level commercials, and award-winning social media content. The studio champions a transformative documentary fellowship program, giving confidence to early talent, inspiring young minds, and uplifting underrepresented communities.
ABOUT THE ANDY WARHOL MUSEUM
Located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the place of Andy Warhol’s birth, The Andy Warhol Museum holds the largest collection of Warhol’s artworks and archival materials and is one of the most comprehensive single-artist museums in the world. The Warhol is one of the Carnegie Museums. Additional information about The Warhol is available at warhol.org.
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PUBLICITY:
Max Kruger-Dull, Blue Medium, 212.675.1800, max@bluemedium.com
Charlene Bidula, The Andy Warhol Museum, 412.237.8351, bidulac@warhol.org, warhol.org/press |
