Legacy (noun)
1: a gift by will especially of money or other personal property
2: something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past <the legacy of the ancient philosophers>
Legacy film festival: Silver tsunami on silver screen
As a gerontology geek, my favorite films are about aging: the 7 Up series, whose subjects are now 56 Up, and Before Sunrise/Before Sunset/Before Midnight series.
With its August 2012 issue, The Gerontologist journal launched its “On Film and Digital Media Section,” showcasing releases focused on aging and instantly became a favorite. In San Francisco, it’s easy to catch popular features like Amour, Hope Springs, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and Trouble with the Curve. But it seems more challenging to access film shorts or documentaries about aging, especially ones made outside the U.S.
Fortunately, Sheila Malkind, who has worked in the aging field for over 40 years, organized the Legacy Film Festival on Aging, now in its third year, at SFSU’s Coppola Theatre! Though on summer break after completing my spring semester finals just two weeks earlier, I returned to campus to volunteer (including taking event photos posted here). The film fest was a wonderful opportunity to connect with like-minded folks about issues surrounding aging during refreshment breaks following each screening’s Q&A session.
SF Commission on Aging President Edna James (also SFSU MA Gerontology alumna) and NEXT Village Executive Director Jacqueline Zimmer Jones at Opening Night! Edna teaches weekly health classes at I.T. Bookman Community Center through Nia/Ujima Wellness Nursing Center, sponsored by OMI (Oceanview-Merced Heights-Ingleside) Community Action Organization, which aims to reduce health disparities (specifically in hypertension/stroke, heart disease, diabetes and obesity) among African-Americans in the OMI Community, and to empower people to take ownership of their personal and community health by promoting health literacy.
Opening Night’s Housing Choices as We Age featured three documentaries. Silver Age looked at aging in India, Japan (intergenerational “senior homes” that allow family and friends to live together, with “volunteers” subsidized by the government) and Tunisia (caring for one’s parents obligatory since 1994 law, and state cares for old without family). Being Old and Active (Oud Actief) looked at the Dutch system where one is “free to choose how to grow old” – with its walk-in daycare centers and communal living based on common culture and language for its immigrant elders. Academy Award nominee for best documentary Kings Point followed a group of seniors who had run away from the “danger and cold winters” of New York in the 1970s to move to Florida’s Kings Point retirement resort; who knew that they’d live so long and miss their children/grandchildren, and how fear of loss might lead to self-preservation so “no one gets close” (“I buried one wife, I don’t want to bury another”).
Q&A with Legacy Executive Director Sheila Malkind (moderator), Kings Point director Sari Gilman, SF Village Director Kate Hoepke, Netherlands consul Thijs Boekhoff, and Living Well Assisted Living at Home President/CEO Doris Bersing.
As we consider where and how we wish to age, I wondered about the outsourcing of aging, like Sonny’s description of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: “a home for the elderly so wonderful they will refuse to die.” Doris noted there is no “one size fits all” and a foreign environment would not work, pointing out the recent NY Times article about depression linked to isolation and Alzheimer's disease (http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/does-depression-contribute-to-dementia/), so moving to Florida
Sari said her father called watching her Kings Point film “relentlessly anxiety-producing,” noting that Americans value independence more by choice, as it’s a badge of pride not to live with parents, who likewise never want to make children take care of them, so there’s a tug to be self-reliant and need other people – how about being interdependent?
After Opening Night, I was hooked. As a nature lover, I didn’t think I could spend my weekend daytime hours inside a dark theater but the film-watching and ensuing discussions were so enlightening! Some highlights from this year’s 25 thought-provoking films and lively Q&A after each screening:
Slomo filmmaker Josh Izenberg’s father attended medical school with John Kitchin, a neurologist who developed prosopagnosia (face blindness), which prompted him to quit his job (at age 55) to “do what you want now” – living in the Zone (“I am”) while skating slow-motion on Pacific Beach boardwalk!
After a screening of Grasping the Bird’s Tail, about adapting tai chi to one’s physical limitations, we joined SFSU instructor Patrick Ryan for tai chi, which is about connection so we are not alone in the world.
Kaziah, The Goat Woman filmmaker Kathleen Dolan is developing her documentary into a feature film of this goat rancher who survived polygamy and has painted portraits of over 1,000 fallen soldiers as gifts to their families.
Gardening friend Pia and classmate Liz enjoy refreshments during break.
Legacy board member Amy Hittner and classmate Koko at ticket table outside Coppola Theatre.
Sheila introduces The Sum Total of Our Memory director Barbara Klutinis and geriatric social worker Edith Kaplan. When Barbara’s husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, they joined a support group with three married couples who are featured in this documentary. Barbara plans to expand her documentary to include experts who can explain the disease and behaviors.
When it comes to aging, I prefer documentaries as few dramas seem to get the aging process right . . . (like I also have a tendency to critique cooking shows when I see food safety violations like not wearing hair restraints while preparing food). I suppose I should mention the other Academy Award nominee for best action short, Henry, which Edith found too melodramatic and not medically accurate. The film began from Henry’s perspective, referring to his wife Maria in the present tense – until we later learn that she died a year ago. His character seemed so sweet and romantic, unlike the “women mourn, men replace” pattern. It’s refreshing to see a man actually pine over a relationship loss, especially with the flashbacks showing the couple’s early years. At one point, Henry asks, “Have I been a good man?” which I thought was like the sum total of one’s life. But I didn’t agree with the film’s ending quote about “the worst thing about old age is an old man losing his memory.” Instead, after living a full and long life, I would expect that people would need to be more selective about what they choose to remember. It’s like Botany of Desire’s marijuana chapter—it’s not so great to actually remember everything, like pain or post-traumatic stress disorder, so some memory loss might be beneficial for our survival. Forgetting the past keeps us in the present so it's almost zen-like? But I’m already looking forward to the future, like the 4th annual Legacy Film Festival on Aging next year!
In the morning prior to the scholarship banquet, I was at UCSF Neurosciences to get my brain scan as part of the non-depressed group study (mentioned in my April posting). Above are views of my brain top and left brain—looking quite happy in anticipation of the evening’s event meeting wonderful PG&E Legacy Scholarship Committee members (thanks Alva, Marlene, Susan, Karla, etc.!), my totally inspiring mentors (thanks Linda and Lisa!) and new colleagues (hello Fairley from Openhouse and Isabel from California Pan-Ethnic Health Network)!
Legacy scholarship: Shout out to PG&E employees!
Talk about films, I had my Academy Award winner Sally Field (now 66 years old) “You like me, you really like me!” moment when PG&E Legacy Employee Resource Group notified me that I was a recipient of its scholarship awarded to “individuals who support senior citizens in the communities we serve.” Since then, I have not looked at my utility bill the same way again J.
The scholarship announcement stated “one or more deserving working adults or students will receive a scholarship of $1,000 to $2,000.” My scholarship award was actually a larger amount to cover my final year of graduate gerontology studies at SFSU, which really exceeded my expectations! According to Scholarship Committee Chair Alva Svoboda, there were 48 applicants for 11 awardees – 10 females and 1 male, similar ratio at SFSU gerontology program.
Wow, I was so impressed by the generosity of financial support plus the lovely celebratory banquet, where I brought along my two extraordinary RD mentors--Lisa Yamashiro, Nutrition Program Coordinator at City College of San Francisco, and Linda Lau, Nutritionist at Department of Aging and Adult Services--who wrote letters of recommendation and remain truly inspiring role models of professionalism, expertise, collaborative spirit, kindness, compassion and cultural sensitivity, to make our City an amazingly inclusive place for everyone to age in community with nourishing food!
The Scholarship Awards Ceremony, "Common Passion, Diverse Focus," combined Legacy with NuEnergy Employee Resource Groups (pictured above are Patrick Tan of NuEnergy and Susan Randall-Nelson of Legacy) for a total of 15 scholarship recipients. The ceremony began with a safety message – “duck, cover, hold” in the event of an earthquake, followed by a show of hands who were CPR-trained. My mentors and I shared a table with two CPR-trained PG&E employees, including recently retired Beth who explained that employees were involved in scholarship fundraising (including bake sales!) throughout the year because supporting students committed to working with seniors is in their best interests as they'll all be seniors soon!
We were told to limit acceptance speeches to one minute, so I managed to thank Alva (pictured above) and Legacy Scholarship Committee, my guests Linda and Lisa for their inspiring mentorship in senior nutrition and health promotion, and my family who modeled intergenerational living where seniors really rocked!
