The controversial crusader behind Frackman returns with a powerful display of activism about another complex issue facing contemporary Australia: the campaign for stronger organ donor awareness.

Nine strangers connected by organ and tissue transplants share a journey through Australia’s complicated medical system in the latest film from director Richard Todd, who previously fought the coal seam gas industry in Frackman. We follow Allan and Kim, whose daughter became the only child in Victoria under the age of 16 that year to have her organs and tissues donated; Holly, who has lived with cystic fibrosis and is waiting for a double lung transplant; and Woody, Kitty, Henry, Tony and mother/son Alice and Levi, whose tenuous and shifting places on the donor list brings with it a whole host of new issues and anxieties.

Despite our reputation as a leader in donor research and innovation, Australia languishes with one of the developed world’s lowest transplant participation rates. Dying to Live questions why this is, and what it will take both politically and socially to make Australia a world leader in all frontiers of this life-changing act.