Retirement Vignettes
A few months traveling around the U.S. interviewing residents in Holiday Retirement communities debunked the myths that keep people clinging to their lawnmowers and washing machines. If anything, I learned that if you find the right retirement home, you again
We met Jim, who designed nearly a hundred playgrounds for local kids. Bill, the “Handy Hunk” who fixed broken drawers and jumped car batteries for his neighbors in his basement workshop. Rodney, whose circle of veteran buddies told us it was the first time they’d been comfortable eating dinner with their backs to the door since they’d returned from combat. And Mary, a lifelong recluse who became a social butterfly and published illustrator after moving into her new apartment.
Stigma be damned, retirement homes are an opportunity to live more fully.
Challenges
Only one half day of production with each retiree and no pre-interviews
One of our interviewees suffered a medical emergency in the morning and we had to recruit a new volunteer and design a new creative strategy in a half-hour to avoid a wasted flight
Tasked with creating an environment that allowed veterans to comfortably open up on camera