The Gerontological Movies Blog

Many care home residents lack opportunities for meaningful activity and social connection, resulting in poor physical and emotional wellbeing. Providing residents with varied activities and social opportunities can improve their quality of life. In this paper, we examine the potential for film to provide a meaningful, social activity. The limited existing research on film in care homes has predominantly examined the use of film clips and materials in stimulating reminiscence for people with dementia. In this paper, we adopt a broader, trans-disciplinary perspective of film, drawing on evidence from Film Studies that shared spectatorship has social and emotional benefits for the viewer. We offer the first qualitative study of care home residents’ social, emotional and embodied engagement with feature-length film and identify the key benefits of film in this setting. We ran social film screenings in two Scottish care homes over six weeks. Underpinned by psycho-cinematic theory, we collected and analysed observational data alongside interviews with care home staff and discussion groups with residents. Our findings identified three ways in which film screenings benefit residents and supports social connection: prompting reminiscence; enhancing residents’ experiences in the present; and creating a shared future and intergenerational connections. The paper offers useful insights into the rich potential for film to enhance the care home community, facilitate social connectivity and promote resident wellbeing.

This paper elaborates on a practical film education project conducted in universities, schools and retirement homes, which we have been working on for several years. We describe the approach to teaching and research that we have been following, as well as the basis of our vision for a project on collage, life writing and film education with elderly people.bout? What makes it interesting? Write a catchy description to grab your audience's attention...

At times a visual or story-telling method can be powerful in helping students process the complicated and multifaceted issues that surround the care of older adults. 

Psychosocial issues, issues of transitions, and ethical dilemmas are often best portrayed with application to a storyline. This technique makes the topics more relevant and better helps students to connect. Storylines can prompt rich discussion and often resonate with the students’ experiences to allow them to better process the complexities of caring for older adults. Cinema footage can be used in clips or in their entirety to set the stage to meet the instructors’ specific objectives. This teaching strategy suggests films and film clips that portray older adults and the issues that often surround them. 

The utilization of the ACE.S Essential Actions is highlighted in the processing of the movies and clips and used as guidelines in thinking about the issues presented. This teaching strategy can be used in class lecture, seminar, or clinical, and is especially effective for online components of a nursing courses.

Given the rapidly escalating older adult population and the need to strengthen content on end-of-life care in nursing curricula, finding creative strategies to encourage student thinking about the dying process and personal choice in end-of-life care is a timely challenge for nurse educators. There is an evolving body of literature in a variety of disciplines on cinemeducation, or the use of films to promote learning and personal awareness. This article describes an innovative assignment incorporating feature films designed not only to enhance student knowledge of the stages and process of grief and the complexity of human reactions when facing end-of-life situations, but also to engage students in thinking about the importance of quality of life in palliative care. The assignment was given to students enrolled in a second-semester, junior-level advanced adult health nursing course. Faculty and student evaluations of the assignment are discussed, and suggestions for selecting films and structuring such an assignment are proposed.

By Eugene Loos, Piotr Kubinski, and Margarida Romero

Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology

 This article focuses on Dutch older adults’ use of digital devices in general, and digital games in particular, from an intergenerational perspective. We first present some facts related to provide insight into how Dutch older adults use such new media. Then, the case of the Dutch short film Pony Place is analyzed using a semiotic and narratological approach, to examine how older adults are represented as so-called ‘digital immigrants’, digitally illiterate persons who are unable to master a digital game device. Finally, an intergenerational digital game design approach is presented to show how older adults can actively be involved in the world of digital games, which could lead to a change from their unbalanced representation as digital immigrants to persons who are, like younger players, able to be active in the world of digital games.

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Abstract
Adapted for the screen by Sir Richard and Charles Wood and directed by Sir Richard Eyre, Iris tells the life story
of famous British philosopher and novelist, Iris Murdoch. Her husband, John Bayley writes two books entitled Iris: A Memoir and Elegy for Iris with reference to the health problems, Murdoch has towards the end of her life.  Relying on these two books, the movie Iris came out in 2001, three years after Murdoch’s death. In the movie, it  is shown how Iris suffers from loss of brain power and Alzheimer as she gets older and how this situation gives
pain both to her and her husband, Bayley. Hence, in this study, how lives of elderly and their loved ones change after illnesses and their pain will be analyzed in reference to Iris Murdoch’s real life story as it is depicted in the
movie, Iris.

Films often portray the complexities of real-life aging issues, showing how they are apparently handled outside of and around the law or legal issues. Furthermore, films considering the aged and the social issues associated with aging also reveal how the law actually functions as a framework around and within which people develop customs, habits, and behaviors related to the issue of old age. Exposing these hidden socio-legal boundaries allows us to better understand both the films concerned and the place of law within our aging society. In an attempt to better understand these issues, this article deconstructs five relatively modern and well-known films. All feature aged protagonists, and all tell their stories against a background of legal issues that are only alluded to, and remain hidden “behind the scenes.” Two main questions are addressed by this analysis: First, to what extent does the reality of old age as described in the films considered here reflect familiar social phenomena identified by empirical studies? And, second, to what extent does the legal infrastructure embedded in the narrative of these films reflect the legal regulations that govern the aged in today's society. The conclusions that arose from the analysis of the cinematic and the legal reality expressed in the films demonstrate that the current level of discourse on major issues in social gerontology ignores the importance and relevance of law. Therefore, it behooves us to “bring the Law to the gerontological stage,” where the current situation as it actually exists can be analyzed and perhaps even changed.

An analysis of the top 100 domestic grossing films of 2002 found evidence of a lingering double standard for aging female and male characters. Overall, major male characters outnumbered major female characters (73% vs. 27%); the majority of male characters were in their 30s and 40s, and the majority of female characters were in their 20s and 30s. Both women and men in their 60s and older were dramatically underrepresented compared to their representation in the US population. For male characters, leadership and occupational power increased with age. Men in their 40s, 50s, and 60s were more likely to play leadership roles and wield occupational power than were their female counterparts. As female characters aged, they were less likely to have goals.

Stereotypes arise in children's lives from their direct experience and also from the media. Today, television and movies serve as an important socializing function supplying many children with images that can form, change, and reinforce stereotypes. Researchers have found that by the time children enter elementary school, they have already developed negative views of older adults. This research examines the representation of older people in Disney animated film in terms of their gender, race, appearance, role, personality, and physical characteristics of older characters. Disney films hold a prominent position in children's media consumption and children today come to know Disney's characters and stories just as their parents and grandparents. The findings indicate that while the majority of older characters are portrayed as positive characters, there is still a large percentage that is portrayed in a negative manner. These results help explain why children have negative feelings toward older people.