Vanishing: A Love Story

Directed by: Sandra Luckow
Produced by: Kat Vecchio

Stage:
- Festival Premiere
Location:
- Oregon, United States
Updated: May 8, 2026
Project Type:
- Feature
Project Style:
- Biographical,
- Observational
Theme Subject:
- Biographical / Portrait,
- Health,
- Love

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Logline

A feature length documentary film about award-winning novelist Cai Emmons and her loving, open-hearted journey towards death.

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Vanishing: A Love Story Trailer

Synopsis

Cai was diagnosed with ALS in 2021, at the age of 70. Vanishing: A Love Story takes place in 2022, during the last six-months of Cai’s life. The film is first and foremost about the agency of expression —having a voice to create a legacy in the world. End-of life decisions, self-determination and personal agency are the major topics and themes of the film, in a cultural climate that shies away from deep thought and discussion about them.

Early in February of 2021,

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Early in February of 2021, after more than 6 months of persistent inquiry, Cai received a diagnosis of Bulbar-onset ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis better known as Lou Gerhig’s Disease). Bulbar-onset is more aggressive than limb- onset ALS, robbing its victims of physical speech capabilities and has a less-than two-years prognosis. In 2020, Cai noticed changes to her voice: her essential and beloved instrument that defined her. The loss of its dynamic and versatile lyricism and constant presence, isolated Cai. She came to use a text-to-voice device — the simulated voice used by Stephen Hawking — but it was frustrating in its limitations.

Ironically during this time, Cai experiences the greatest successes of her professional career. Five months after her diagnosis, she sold two of her novels to different publishers on the same day. When we first meet Cai in the film, the destination of her journey seems far away, even though we know the statistics. Her ALS feels chronic, even manageable, despite certain adaptations and challenges. And Cai approaches all the indignities of her illness with a detached curiosity, chatting with nurses and other patients about ports, lung capacity, muscle strength, tube feeding, tracheotomies and Death with Dignity. When, in the early summer of 2022, a news story breaks about a promising first-ever restorative ALS drug pending human trials, Cai is hopeful this film will document a person surviving ALS.

During this time, her husband Paul clears away everything unnecessary and “project manages” every aspect of their lives in hopes of making the most of their time together. He creates a space for Cai’s passionate need to continue writing, walking, kayaking, socializing, promoting her work and eating — long after it’s medically advised that she tube feed exclusively. He battles with insurance companies and acquires all the expensive and complicated equipment for Cai’s quality of life and survival. For a while it feels like it’s all working!

But shortly after a blow-out celebration for the publications of her books Unleashed and Livid, Cai begins a physical free-fall decline. She throws herself into preparing her friends and family for her death. She does a guided psilocybin trip hoping to gain emotional clarity. She researches the Death with Dignity requirements in Oregon. This brings up unexpected challenges for Cai. She must be able to self-administer, and she must have a terminal diagnosis that will lead to death within six months.

And yet the very nature of ALS could lead to a loss of physical capacity to self-administer long before a six-month prognosis. It’s in Cai’s nature to be the over-achieving star patient and she doesn’t fully disclose her sufferings to Dr. Chahin. Based on his data, he can’t give her a six-month prognosis. The film becomes a race against time to end her life with agency, and to win that race, Cai must fight against the impulse to curate her projected image.

Cai was excited about bringing the subject of death — the equalizer of all humanity — to the forefront. She wanted to de-stigmatize, and even normalize it, even though it was contrary to her New England, white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant upbringing. She relished the paradoxical challenge of debating modern medicine’s inability to “save her” and its reluctance to help her die. She was determined her entire life, long before her ALS diagnosis, to create a lasting and meaningful legacy. In this way, the film itself is an extension of Cai’s life as an activist and writer.

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Background

Fifteen months after her ALS diagnosis, we began communicating about Cai’s limited time left in the world; what she had left to communicate and what her legacy would be. We began talking about the possibilities and practicality of making a documentary of her experience. Cai, and her husband Paul, were completely onboard.

I make intimate documentary portraiture of extraordinary people who confront challenging circumstances, whether willingly or unwillingly. The result

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I make intimate documentary portraiture of extraordinary people who confront challenging circumstances, whether willingly or unwillingly. The result of this work is a glimpse into some unfettered truths about humanity. My creative practice began with, “Sharp Edges,” a documentary about a then 15-year-old unknown Tonya Harding going to her first national figure-skating competition with little more than unmatched, raw potential. And my most recent documentary, “That Way Madness Lies…” chronicled my brother’s unvarnished struggles with paranoid schizophrenia as well his family’s failure to get him meaningful help.

With all my films, I immersed and embedded myself into the lives of my subjects. My creative practice is to give my subjects as much agency over the nature of their image as possible. Vanishing: A Love Story is a continuation of that process on a much greater intensity level.

I met Cai ten months before she was diagnosed with ALS. We were alumnae from the first two decades of women at Yale University, and although years apart, we both received our MFAs at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in Filmmaking. Despite the cross-country distance and a raging pandemic, we had many lively one-on-one zoom conversations over cocktails — talking about life, politics, art, and, most adamantly, storytelling.

Cai took an active role in convincing healthcare professionals, family and friends to understand unflinchingly of her desire make a record of this process. Daily, there were ongoing consent and transparency checks and Cai was adamant in her conviction to give me access to her life.

I promised Cai to film her “Death with Dignity” which she needed to schedule before ALS robbed her of her ability to self-administer. And now, as I move into post-production using AI technology to create her posthumous narration (with not only her permission, but also her directive), I am challenged with my sense of obligation to “get it right” while having to bring a small army of collaborators and resources into the process.

My vision of success for this film will be a recognition of Cai, in all her complexity, by her family, friends and fans of her writing. Success will mean that I do not shy away from the ravages of ALS, the controversy of her psilocybin explorations, her unwitting ambivalence about dying juxtaposed with her determination to take a lethal injection. This film, ultimately, will be the illumination of Cai Emmons’ humanity and an authentic legacy.

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Participants

Cai Emmons

Participant

Cai Emmons

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Style & Tone

The creative vision for the film allows the viewer access to Cai’s inner life; an inner life that’s imprisoned inside an ALS ravaged body; an inner life that is normally the province of fiction filmmaking. Together Cai and I researched AI voice-to-voice technology and she wanted me to use it as her “voice” in the film. While ALS had robbed her of her speaking voice, by using Cai’s own writing combined with this AI technology, the film will give Cai the last

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Team

Sandra Luckow

Director

Team

Sandra Luckow

Director

Sandra Luckow is a Mexican-American filmmaker who founded Ojeda Films, Inc. in 2000 to bring a bi-cultural voice to independent film. She is known for Sharp Edges, Belly Talkers (1996 Sundance US competition) the multiple award-winning, That Way Madness Lies, and most recently Vanishing: A Love Story. Sandra has worked at Warner Bros., and Universal in casting, network and cable news programs and daytime dramas. She taught film production at Yale University, School of Art (22 years) as well as at Columbia University, Barnard College, Wesleyan University, and Sarah Lawrence College. Her pedagogy includes democratizing accessibility to modes of filmmaking by using smart phone technologies and teaching all aspects of production. She has traveled and worked internationally giving workshops, most notably with the US State Departments cultural exchange: Lines and Spaces. She is a member of the Directors Guild of America and holds an MFA from NYUs TIsch School of the Arts. She is also a professional ventriloquist working on a stage show entitled "Let Me Explain You."

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Kat Vecchio

Producer

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Kat Vecchio

Producer

Kat is a documentary producer, filmmaker and writer who endeavors to tell engaging, quirky, and insightful stories. Her first feature documentary, THIS IS HOW I ROLL, takes viewers through the hip-checking and emotional journey of the rise of modern men's roller derby. Her writing has appeared on Narratively, Atlas Obscura, and in Bandwagon, the journal of the Circus Historical Society. Before joining The Video Consortium she was the Chief Creative Officer at Fork Films and prior to that she was the Director of Grantmaking for Fork, where she developed, implemented and managed Fork Films' documentary film grants program.

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Ann Collins

Story Consultant

Team

Ann Collins

Story Consultant

Ann has been working in documentary film for over twenty-five years. Her editing credits include the feature documentaries The Heart of the Matter, Belly Talkers, The Charcoal People, and Sound and Fury, all of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival before receiving theatrical and television distribution. Sound and Fury was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. She taught at the School of Visual Arts in both the Masters in Social Documentary and the Masters in Photography, Video and Related Media programs. She has guest lectured at NYU's film school and school of journalism. She has also served on the selection committee and jury of the Newport Film Festival. She has also worked extensively as a story consultant and consulting editor on numerous independent documentaries.

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Quentin Chiappetta

Composer

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Quentin Chiappetta

Composer

I met Sandra when we were put together by a mutual friend to create some short promotional videos for the Morris Museum in New Jersey. I was thrilled and flattered when she reached out to collaborate on her new project Vanishing: A Love Story. It has been a pleasure to immerse myself in the emotional rollercoaster of building the soundtrack for this film.
I have been creating original music and sound design for a broad range of projects for nearly 30 years. I have written original music for theater; scored, designed and mixed independent films, documentaries and TV shows; and created immersive soundscapes for museums. Most recently I created and installed the multi-channel soundscape that covers the entire Entertainment Nation permanent exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. I’m also the sound designer and mixer for Christian Marclay’s 24-hour masterpiece “The Clock”.
One of my favorite things about the work I do is that it gives me the chance to collaborate with and become friends with brilliant, creative people. When a team like this is gathered together to make something, the result will invariably be much more than its parts.

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Yasmin Mistry

Animator

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Yasmin Mistry

Animator

Yasmin Mistry is an Emmy-nominated animator and filmmaker. Her work has been displayed worldwide including showings at the United Nations and White House as well as at film festivals such as SXSW, Tribeca and DOC NYC. She is the recipient of grants from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Brooklyn Arts Council, Jerome Foundation, Riverside Sharing Fund, Artists Volunteer Center, and Harnisch Foundation, in addition to being a two-time finalist for the ITVS Diversity Development Fund. Yasmin is also the founder of the Foster Care Film & Community Engagement Project, which uses film and animation to give youth in foster care a platform through which to be heard. Her films have screened at over 140 film festivals and been nominated for more than 80 awards. When not creating media, Yasmin works as a programmer for the Anchorage International Film Festival, a screener for the Blackbird Film Festival, and a co-leader for the filmmaking collaborative Docshop.

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