Ain’t Got Time to Die | A film by Martin Krafft

For years, Rachel Heysham lived in small-town Pennsylvania, surviving abusive lovers, addiction, illness, and poverty. At age 45, she decided to start a new life, moving to Montana to live out of her RV. With a fresh start, she overcame her alcohol addiction, discovered a love of wild hot springs, and started hiking the mountains of western Montana. But her past would come back to haunt her.

The bouts of cancer that have plagued Rachel for most of her adult life are not over. She is told by doctors that she has only two months to live. The documentary Ain’t Got Time to Die explores Rachel’s journey of self-discovery juxtaposed with her battle with cancer. In the midst of debilitating pain, Rachel rallies from her illness to go on extreme adventures, hiking barefoot up mountains.

In the course of making the documentary, Martin Krafft, the filmmaker, becomes immersed in Rachel’s life, spending weeks sleeping on her RV couch, driving her to doctor appointments, and fundraising for her living expenses. His efforts to provide support are complicated by his own ingrained cultural biases toward her antagonistic relationship to conventional medicine. The film looks candidly at conflicts between the subject and filmmaker, striving to give agency to Rachel to frame how she is seen as her condition worsens.

This film looks at one woman’s incredible journey with death, offering a fresh perspective on someone who doesn’t look and talk like people you typically see represented in media. Hold your assumptions about how someone can and should go about dying, because Rachel may challenge them all.

Bio: Martin Krafft is a filmmaker and performance artist based in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, and Berlin. His art weaves new possibilities of creative interactions between strangers, exploring and permeating boundaries of “otherness.” In addition to working as a stonemason, nonviolence facilitator, and community organizer, he has run an artist residency that supports housing-insecure artists. His first feature-length documentary, Ain’t Got Time to Die, won best picture and best documentary at the West Kortright Center Film Festival and has been an official selection in festivals around the world.