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What kind of elder care is in your future?
"The Journey Home" is a provocative look at the future of elder care in the US. This short film (10 minutes) is set in an elder care facility in the year 2030. Shot in HD black and white, with a surreal color montage, the story follows an older woman on her "Journey Home." It is a "thought film" that ends with a provocative question for the audience to answer.
The question of our own elder care seems simple with a straightforward answer: we want to be surrounded by loved ones, visited by friends and family, stimulated mentally and physically, fed well and provided ample medical care to ease the aging body's frustrations. The problem is that neither our politicians nor the elder care industry have put much thought or planning into dealing with this demographic time bomb.
To put it into perspective, as the Baby Boomer generation enters the year 2030, over 30% of our population will move towards either semi-dependent or fully dependent living conditions. Never in our modern history have we had an even closely comparable demographic demand like this placed on an institutional or governmental system. The future of elder care is considered a political graveyard so we choose to ignore it. We are entering a situation where our social structures are going to dramatically change—and we are not preparing for it! There are no comprehensive plans at any level of government, or in the private sector, to take care of the numbers of aging Boomers that will flood the elder care system in just 10 years.
The main purpose of this short “thought film” is to make people aware of this impending crisis and get them involved in creating a new vision for how we will be taken care of near the end of our lives. Although the film presents a number of important moral and ethical questions, it's not suggesting a specific direction to follow. It invites all who view it to participate in the future of elder care—which ultimately involves all of us.
See a Fact Sheet on the issues of the future of elder care
"The Journey Home" presents a provocative and controversial vision of elder care in the future. Shot primarily in black and white, (with a surprise color montage) the viewer enters a world of gray scale—a world where one can exist but not fully live. It's a place where technology replaces a strong social and personal network. It is no wonder that, after working in this fictional 2030 elder care facility, the two very proficient Latina nurses in the film say they would never subject their elderly parents, who live with them at home, to stay in a place like this.
At its heart, "The Journey Home" is designed to be a film calling people to action and to the realization that the year 2030 is not so far away.
Riverside International Film Festival
Utah Arts & Film Festival
New Media Film Festival
Please contact us for more information
including use in training, live dialogues, keynote addresses,
and licensing to use this film in undergraduate and graduate curricula
or to comment on the film and the subject of the future of elder care.