Aging Series: Daring to Age Well! - A film and speaker series at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco in conjunction with Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center and Sheila Malkind's Legacy Film Series.
Join Pacific Institute for this exciting event!
Pacific Institute is pleased to invite you to join us in these exciting times of reflection and reinvention. A great number of people in our society see Aging as a challenge that needs to be overcome more than an opportunity to reinvent ourselves.
Pacific Institute and its sponsors and friends bring to you this Aging Series to present new perspectives about Aging and share with you thought provoking ideas to help to reinvent yourselves and age meaningfully. As Dr. Nader Shabahangi says in his book Faces of Aging: "... what if we could not wait to be old, like a child can't wait to be an adult?...
These series are for anyone who is intrigued by such a prospect.
The Program offers the following schedule:
Wednesday, May 18, 2005 (7:00-9:00 p.m.) Telling the Stories of Aging.
For many story-telling is an entertainment, for others stories are the inspiration of tradition, culture, and life. Melvin and Rosa John write "...Especially when the old people, when they talk, there is a lot of memory that comes along, and that is what storytelling to me is: bringing back those old memories and bringing back the life. And a lot of times we need those stories to remind us why we travel this road. That's what it means to me..." For us it means talking also about the process of aging and sharing it with other people.
Films Life Stories (60 Minutes) - USA 2001 by John Ankele and Anne Macksoud
Intensely moving stories created by older adults who explore their inner lives in a writing class that is led by Thomas Coles, PhD, a well known professor and author of books on creativity and aging.
My Father's Hopes (4 minutes) USA, 2000 by Ronald Mangravite
A poetic and moving short documentary about the filmmaker's father, who studied art as a young man but was diverted into the business world by family responsibilities. After his wife's death, he faced a profound crisis, which eventually resulted in a remarkable old age.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005 (6:30-9:00 p.m.) The Beauty of Aging
These days where beauty is defined by an un-wrinkled face and a vigorously fit body, we need a meaningful discussion about beauty and how it is shaped by our society, families, and traditions. To age well we perhaps need to redefine our personal concept of beauty.
Films Old Woman (4 minutes) USA, 1998 - by Sandra Martin.
Narrated by a woman over 100 years "young," this videotape recounts a woman's significant life events from childhood to the present. Leafing through her beloved photo album, the woman takes viewers along the journey of her life, challenging them with the question, "What do you see, when you look at me?" She urges viewers to look beyond her aging exterior and see the young girl still inside.
Although poignantly referring to the cruelty of nature and the too-fast passing of time, the video's overall message is a proud tribute to the vibrancy and agelessness of the human spirit.
Beauty Before Aging: Growing Older in Gay Culture (22 minutes) USA, 1998 - by Johnny Symons. Previously shown on PBS.
A rare male perspective on society's obsession with physical appearance, Beauty Before Age critically examines the power of youth, beauty and the fear of aging in the gay male community.
Let's Face It: Women explore their aging faces (26 minutes) USA, 2003 - by Wendy Oser, Joan Levinson, and Beverly Spencer.
Seven women, ages 45 to 65, explore and reflect upon their changing faces. Openly, honestly and with considerable humor the women reveal how they feel about the sags and bags, wrinkles and lines that show up on their faces. Speaking out loud about their feelings, they become aware of their deep ambivalence about the changes, a nostalgia for their former looks and, in most cases, an acceptance of what is now.
Wednesday, August 17, 2005 (6:30-9:00 p.m.) Vital Seniors
Perhaps one of the best things we can do to secure our independence and well-being as we get older is to remain active in body and mind. Vitality --mainly of the spirit-- means to find ways to keep ourselves both mentally and physically healthy, illustrating an important theme in The Series: Society will benefit as a whole when more of its senior citizens take charge of their aging process and reinvent themselves towards a meaningful aging. The most crucial point to keep in mind is that staying vital will lengthen and enrich your quality of life.
Films To You Sweetheart, Aloha (60 minutes) USA, 2004 - by S. Leo Chiang and Mercedes Coats.
To You Sweetheart, Aloha is a one-hour documentary-which follows the 94th year in the life of the colorful Honolulu-born 'ukelele master Bill Tapia, exploring not only the charismatic musician and his unique stamp on the creation of Hawai'ian jazz, but also the consummate showman and the endearing storyteller who seeks the fountain of youth. While mourning the death of his wife and only daughter, Bill finds a muse in 26-year-old Alyssa Kauanakinilani Archambault, his manager and friend who helps him connect to his past and rebuild a future in music. Bill's illustrious history, spanning more than 85 years as a musical pioneer and a charismatic entertainer in both the Hawai'ian islands and the mainland, serves as the backdrop to an unconventional friendship founded on an infectious love of Hawai'ian music and culture. But at the core of this captivating narrative is a complex and often turbulent portrait of an elderly artist clinging to his youthful spirit despite losing the battle against an aged body and learning to forge a life for his self after outliving everyone he loves.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 (6:30-9:00 p.m.) Mindful Dying or claiming your place at the Fire!
"Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end."--Deuteronomy 32:29.
We could say that life's greatest gift is the opportunity we all have to look back and be able not only to tell the story but to change it. That's why the end of life may become the most meaningful period ever. However, facing death results in more fear and anxiety than any other human experience, and death is a topic we don't enjoy talking or thinking about. This session intends to deepen our understanding of the spiritual dimension, and the psychological and spiritual challenges involved in dying.
Films Liberty: 3 stories about life & death (55 minutes), USA, 2004 - by Pam Walton
This moving documentary interweaves the stories of three close lesbian friends: Joyce Fulton (66), who died over the course of two years from a brain tumor; Mary Bell Wilson (79), who, with indefatigable courage, faces up to a losing struggle with lymphoma, and Nan Golub (58), a black-leather-jacketed, platinum-dyed New York City artist, very much alive. Liberty demystifies death, dispels misinformation about age and sexual orientation, and reminds us that life is not only worth living but even celebrating. This film has been
showcased at more than a dozen film festivals around
the world.
Full Circle (28 min), USA, 1998 - by Carrie and Yasha Aginsky. Official Selection, Cinema du Reel
After learning that her 90-year-old mother, who is living in a nursing home, has end-stage cancer, the filmmaker, Carrie Aginsky, takes her mother into her own home to care for her and help her die with dignity.The film looks back on the life of Carrie's mother and how her relationship with Carrie has changed over the years. The film also looks at the reaction of Carrie's sons to having their grandmother in their home as she dies. The story is told with remarkable beauty. FULL CIRCLE, was chosen for the Cinema du Reel in Paris, 1998 and broadcast on ARTE in October, 1999 and in May,1999
Wednesday, October 19, 2005 (6:30-9:00 p.m.) Staying Engaged in Old Age
Rolly Mulvey, 76 - one of the seniors featured in the movie Seniors for Peace says: "A lot of people think seniors get up, eat breakfast, read a book, eat dinner, play bingo and go to bed. We don't do that."
For many one way of staying engaged is seeking justice and peace, in brief, for a better world; others stay engaged by continuing a creative process where there is no limit for dreams, growth, and opportunities.
Films Seniors for Peace (26 minutes) - USA 2003 by David L. Brown
Seniors for Peace is an inspiring 26-minute documentary on a group of remarkably articulate and
passionate senior peace activists (average age 85) from The Redwoods Retirement Community in Mill Valley, California. The video profiles the committed senior peace group that grew to a peak size of 160 members in the weeks before the war on Iraq. The group began expressing its strong opposition to the impending war six weeks before it began in spirited weekly demonstrations at the corner next to The Redwoods. The documentary captures a number of the groups energetic and colorful street demonstrations and features interviews with several participants expressing their passionate anti-war views. It also features some very moving personal stories of the member's own war experiences in World War II and work in post-war disaster areas that have contributed to their present anti-war and social justice views. As the film documents, the SENIORS FOR PEACE have continued to hold weekly meetings to discuss current political issues and to arrive at lines of action to highlight and remedy acts of violence and other injustices. This documentary has played at the Mill Valley Film Festival, the Tiburon International Film Festival, the Durango Film Festival and the Maui Film Festival. Seniors for Peace has also been screened for peace groups and senior centers throughout England and the Netherlands.
Of Wind and Waves (36 minutes) USA 2004 - by David L. Brown
Of Wind and Waves is a feature-length documentary-in-progress on 92-year old surfing, sailing and soaring legend, Woody Brown. Woody has not only lived a life full of seemingly endless adventure and accomplishment - including inventing the modern catamaran and setting world gliding records - but he has also done so with a kind of selflessness, simplicity and generosity that have made him a role model for generations of Hawaiians, both surfers and non-surfers as well as everyone who has met him.
Woody is like a modern Thoreau on a surfboard, living in harmony with the world around him, alive to the possibilities of each new day, and following his own singular vision of how to be in the world. His unique blend of enthusiasm, wisdom and spirit makes him a
truly inspirational figure. But Woody's story encompasses tragedy as well as triumph, including his struggle to come to terms with the devastating loss of his wife during childbirth, his subsequent abandonment of their infant son, and his eventual reconciliation
with that son some 60 years later. These dramatic events offer the full spectrum of Woody's extraordinary life experience.
Panelists Alan Klaum - Author and consultant; He is co-author of In Our Fifties: Men and Women Reinventing Their Lives (1993) and is president of the Board of the San Francisco Mental Health Association. In his private practice, Alan brings cross-cultural experience and focuses on adult life transition issues, organizational development and conflict resolution. Leda Sanford - Motivational speaker and author of the forth coming Look for the Moon in the Morning due for publication by Elders Academy Press in the Fall of 2005, former editorial director of Living Anew, former advertising director for Modern Maturity and The AARP Bulletin. Currently serves as an editorial and marketing consultant about speciality publishing to the mature market.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005 (6:30-9:00 p.m.) From Home to Home: Continuum of Care in Later Years.
Although saying good-bye to familiar surroundings, and the comfort and security of home, isn't always necessary, taking care of aging or ill parents is a challenge. Care at home is not always a "piece-of-cake' and when impossible moving to an assisted living or other type of institutionalized care can be very traumatic, regardless of age. Donna Quinn says, "Seniors feel particularly vulnerable and stressed, while their adult children often are overwhelmed and frustrated trying to juggle already overly-busy lives to accommodate their parents' needs". Then, finding the right "home" away from home is another challenge that not always we meet with success. Joins us to discuss possibilities when we need to care for our beloved ones in their transition from home to home!
"Unflinchingly honest...a film that will give hope to Alzheimer's caregivers as well as early-stage Alzheimer's patients."
Marcia Freedman, American Society of Aging
"The first time my mother asked me, 'How exactly is it that we're related?' I was shocked," says filmmaker Deborah Hoffmann. In Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter, a tender exploration of the tenacity of love and the meaning of memory, Hoffmann chronicles her growing understanding of her elderly mother's struggle with Alzheimer's disease. Shaped by Hoffmann's honest, witty confessional-style narration, the film examines a timely subject: as Americans live longer, more and more people are faced with the life-altering challenge of caring for an elderly parent. Newly widowed, 78-year-old Doris Hoffmann decides to move to California to be near her daughter. At first, the filmmaker views her mother's increasingly strange behavior as simple forgetfulness. With a dry wit, Deborah chronicles Doris's bizarre obsessive stages.
Eventually, Hoffmann discovers that her mother is suffering from Alzheimer's disease. A desire to cure the incurable gives way to a growing acceptance of the fact that the Doris Hoffmann her daughter remembers no longer exists. "Little by little," the filmmaker explains, "the only real remaining memories are childhood and very early adulthood. And she remembers her parents fairly well. But what I always thought of as her life, what I knew to be her life -- which was me and my brother and my father and the 50 plus years she lived in New York -- that's kind of disappeared, which is a little hard for me to take." Their former relationship irretrievably obscured by memory loss, the two women forge a new friendship, based not on a shared past but on an abiding love that transcends long-forgotten particulars. "She is the ultimate of living in the moment," Hoffmann says proudly of her mother in the film's closing monologue. "She's sort of the ultimate enlightened person." Born out of love and frustration, Hoffmann's directorial debut weaves together old photographs, home movies, and modern video footage to create a heartfelt, exceedingly intimate evocation of the enduring bond between two people.
Nominated for an Academy Award(R), winner of both the Teddy and Caligari awards at the Berlin Film Festival, the film also touched the hearts of many at the Sundance Film Festival and was voted Audience Favorite at San Francisco's Frameline Film Festival. The late Chicago Tribune film critic Gene Siskel said, "Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter is the best film about Alzheimer's disease that I've seen."
AND THOU SHALT HONOR: The Eden Alternative (20 minutes) - USA 2002 - presented by Joe Mantegna and produced by Wiland-Bell Productions, LLC.
And Thou Shalt Honor documents an exciting new stage in our cultural development. While the huge increase in the number of caregivers in our society can be said to be a result of the success of medical technology, it also represents a breakthrough in our growth as an extended family. During the second half of the 20th Century, advances in medical technology made it possible for individuals to survive for years with diseases and chronic conditions that would have made a rapid death just a few years before. Though laudable, this created a new population of persons in need of caregiving ... and, therefore, a new population of caregivers.
Many, if not most, of us will be both in our lifetimes -- caregiver and the cared-for. We may slip into these roles so gradually that we scarcely realize it. Or, as the social scientists say, we may not self-identify. In the Eden Project video Dr. Bill Thomas says: "We've got millions of fantastic caregivers who are willing to work and to give their time and effort to the care of the elders but they're being made to do it in a really fouled up, left over, antiquated factory system." Thomas has founded The Eden Alternative, a radically different approach to elder care that provides a stimulating environment full of children, animals, and constructive, engaging ways to spend time. "I believe that every elder should have a chance to live in a garden," Thomas says. Since Dr. Thomas first published his ideas, in 1996, 237 nursing facilities have adopted his approach.
Other innovative programs are being put into effect in communities around the country, and petitioners representing caregivers have received a sympathetic ear in Congress. Although some national legislation has been enacted, its impact has been minimal. In the meantime, for millions of people, home care will continue to be the right choice. Despite its sometimes overwhelming financial and emotional cost, it honors one of our most fundamental compacts, our commitment to our loved ones.
Panelists Cathy Murphy - Entrepreneur and seniors advocate. Donna Quinn Robbins - Author, lecturer, and consultant. Elke Tekin - licensed residential Care facility for the Elderly Administrator, Community Relationships and Marketing specialist.
Location:
First Unitarian Church of San Francisco
1187 Franklin Street (at Geary)
San Francisco, CA 94109
