A film about — and including — senior living residents won best new film, best director and best actress at the 81st Venice International Film Festival Orizzonti Competition.
“Familiar Touch,” billed as a “coming of (old) age” film, includes residents and staff from Villa Gardens, a Front Porch continuing care retirement community located in Pasadena, CA.
Written and directed by Sarah Friedland, who won the award for best director, and starring Kathleen Chalfant, who won the best actress award, “Familiar Touch” follows an octogenarian woman’s transition to life in assisted living. The film, which also won the Lion of theFuture-Luigi de Laurentiis Award for Best Debut Film, follows Chalfant’s character contending with conflicting relationships to herself and her caregivers amidst her shifting memory, age identity and desires.
“None of this exists without the residents of Village Gardens continuing care retirement community, who invited us into their stories, home and workplace,” Friedland said in her acceptance speech. She worked with New York City artists and creatives with memory loss, which led her into intergenerational filmmaking and teaching filmmaking in senior living communities.
Laura Darling, Front Porch vice president of communications, said Friendland told her she was looking for a senior living community with a specific culture for the film — a community with a desire for lifelong learning, that was creative and open to experimentation. Friendland’s grandmother’s caregiver’s sister works at Kingsley Manor, another Front Porch community located in Los Angeles, who suggested Villa Gardens.
The project that almost wasn’t
Villa Gardens Executive Director Shaun Rushforth admitted to McKnight’s Senior Living that he was reluctant to move forward with the project. He had experienced filming at previous communities and knew how “intrusive and disruptive” the process could be even for one day.
But Friedland won him over with her vision.
“I am so glad we said yes,” Rushforth said, adding that Friedland and the crew were respectful of the fact that they were working in residents’ homes. Daily meetings with Friendland and her producer ensured constant communication about logistics and feedback from residents.
Allowing the residents to help vet the project was another key lesson learned, Rushforth said. Despite their best efforts, it still was a disruptive process at times, with equipment coming and going and common spaces shut down at times.
“By the time filming actually started, the residents had over a month to get to know the filmmakers through the workshops,” Rushforth said. “They, too, were invested in making this film and helped coordinate many of the logistics for us, in terms of getting resident support and participation.”
Dawneen Lorance, Villa Gardens marketing director, called Friendland a “proponent” in the intergenerational philosophy on aging.
“One of the biggest benefits that we are seeing now is that the residents truly feel that they participated in the creation of an award winning independent film,” Lorance said. “Villa Gardens residents bonded with the crew members during the workshops and filming the movie.
“I believe Sarah’s vision and respect of the aging process, and being in our residents’ home, created this unique level of interaction and engagement with the film crew.”
The making of a film
Friedland worked with Jean Owens, president of the community’s resident council, to ensure full community buy-in for the project. She also made multiple presentations at Villa Gardens for residents and staff members.
Villa Gardens residents and staff members worked in front of the camera and behind the scenes. Resident Lisa Tanahashi worked with the art department, meeting with other residents to select personal pieces of art to be displayed in various scenes.
“Something about this experience changed us,” Tanahashi said. “We walk a little taller, we feel things a little deeper, we got to know each other, and we got to laugh with and at each other as we were going through this unfamiliar process.”
In the five weeks leading up to filming, Friedland, the film crew and cast led workshops on different aspects of filmmaking for Villa Gardens residents, including scriptwriting, cinematography, acting, editing and art direction. Rushworth said the workshops were a way for the film to give back to the community, as well as a way for filmmakers to immerse themselves in the community.
Residents produced their own short films that were screened at the community, and the writers interviewed residents and staff to better understand what community life was like. By the end of it, Friedland said, everyone who participated was able to try every aspect of filmmaking.
“By turning a retirement community into a professional film set and intergenerational artist residency, we wanted to challenge the perception of care facilities as depressing places devoid of creativity, and support older adults’ self expression while inviting their, and care workers’, collaboration in our anti-ageist character study,” Friedland said.
