Conversations about senior housing/representation

I recently had my friend Caitlin come to stay with me. She is currently in the process of applying to programs in gerontology and was lamenting the lack there of. It seems that there is really only one decent holistic/transdisciplinary program on Senior Housing in the US-- at George Mason in DC. It's scary and also a big shame.

We discussed the aging populations of both the US and Europe, as well as the positions elderly people hold in our cultures' and society. With the baby boomers aging and retiring and people having less children in anglo-european countries, the majority of the populations are (or soon will be) sitting at a very high median age. Increasing age averages means a necessity for increased care and representation of the elderly. Having trained carers and capable authorities on aging and the elderly will be essential to the legal and ethical care of those elderly people who require special or additional care as well as those in vulnerable positions legally or otherwise.

There are eight gerontology PhD programs in the United States. USC is the only private university with such a program and full funding is hard to come by at nearly all. Only two programs have any focus in applied public health. The field is remarkably small for what looks to be a huge demand. Who will be activists for the elderly? Can the elderly actively and radically represent themselves in a society that pushes them to the back seat?

The readings that we assigned for this class go into depth about how to shoot ethnography and how to represent the under (and well) represented. Many of them, from Mirzoeff to Nader, also cover ideas on the type of activist cinema we (or I) am attempting to shoot. While my readings on film theory certainly effect my cinematic practice, the latter mentioned texts make me question just what people and issues I want to shine my small spotlight on. Back to pragmatism and the why question.

My project seems to be moving in an educational direction--> educating the elderly on how they can empower themselves and educating the pre-retirement ages on best-practices. Of course, I am educating myself at the same time. Much of my footage and shooting has been in the form of conversation and interaction. I make no claims about being an expert on representations of the elderly, but I do have a camera, motivation, time, and a cause. By showing people what they can do and what goes on I am able to create and spread the ideas of activist cinema/documentary.