One of the reasons that people fear death is that they don’t know when it’s coming. Not knowing what happens afterward is also important, but the uncertainty of how a final day or moment might be spent without tying up loose ends or properly saying goodbye can be truly terrifying. Can I Get a Witness? imagines a world where the date and manner of death are prescribed, and everyone should know exactly when it’s coming and what they want to do right before it happens. It’s a fascinating concept that comes to somewhat vivid life in this creative exploration of a possible future.

Kiah (Keira Jang) lives with her mother Ellie (Sandra Oh) and is reluctantly preparing for her first day as a Documenter. Kiah’s responsibility is to draw what happens during that fateful final ceremony as her assigned partner Daniel (Joel Oulette) executes the legal and technical aspects of the death and burial. Kiah’s extraordinary talents allow images to literally fly off the page, a fitting way to remember moments that cannot be photographed or memorialized in any other manner due to the ecological ban on technology enacted to keep the Earth habitable. Ensuring that no one lives past fifty is the other key piece which necessitates Kiah and Daniel’s work.

Presented differently, this film could be utterly depressing. Instead, it feels like something closer to Nine Days, a film about someone giving people the chance at life and then creating for them a beautiful scene on which to end if they’re not selected. Daniel has a respect for the work he does and is a true believer in the cause, namely that this an important communal contract that benefits the greater population. Kiah comes at it from another perspective, not sure how to feel and not entirely comfortable with the idea of being present for the very intimate last moment of someone’s earthly existence.

Can I Get a Witness? comes from filmmaker Ann Marie Fleming, whose past works include The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam and Window Horses. Her experience with animation is a boon to this film, which brings Kiah’s art to life in a way that feels magical. After previously collaborating with Oh, Fleming finds a fitting – and minimal – role for her in this project that allows her to focus on these two younger finds. Jang in particular impresses in her feature film debut, honing in on the loneliness Kiah feels as she meets these people in flickering final encounters and has to create what will be the only lasting impression of them.

This is not a grand sci-fi epic with flashbacks to how things got so bad or televised press conferences dictating the new world order. Instead, it’s a quiet film that slowly reveals its subtleties, like the fact that only certain people are permitted to have cars and that select films have been archived and are available to watch but must be reserved in advance, namely Zoolander. It’s a strange sampling of what lives on in this world that might not be too distant from ours, with a few nonconformists looking to shirk their fate by pretending to be younger or hiding when their time comes.

That regulations like this might be necessary doesn’t feel far-fetched, but rather that everyone would be compliant and selfless enough to make the system sustainable. Fleming’s film is a thoughtful meditation on what we do while we live and why we do it, asking questions by showing how people react in given situations. It’s a concept that offers more to explore which it doesn’t get to, but it’s a very insightful start that presents a great deal of food for thought.

Grade: B

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Can I Get a Witness? makes its world premiere in the Special Presentations section at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.