When her 20-year-old grandson comes upon hard times, Barbara takes him in.
But her generosity backfires. Thinking she’s snooping, Erik becomes physically abusive when he finds her cleaning his room. Soon he starts demanding money, issuing implied threats to force trips to the bank.
Barbara’s friends are concerned but powerless to intervene.
This vignette of elder abuse is a key component of a film titled “Making the Invisible Visible,” created and produced by the Laguna Woods group Community Bridge Builders.
The film, which will be shown at the Laguna Woods Performing Arts Center on Monday, Feb. 24, puts a glaring but overdue spotlight on the pervasive yet often ignored or misperceived scourge of ageism.
Ageism is “a form of segregation, apartheid for the old,” says the film’s executive producer, Rebeca Gilad. “And then there is also the politicization of ageism. Lastly, let’s also not forget ageism in oneself.”
From left, Hannah Yaoz, Mark Schwartz, Toni Redman and Carol Glenn portray three generations of a family waiting in a hospital for word on whether a relative will survive a plastic surgery procedure that went wrong, in a skit on the stranglehold the beauty industry has on women. The skit is part of the film “Making the Invisible Visible, about ageism, produced by the Laguna Woods Community Bridge Builders group. (Photo by Mark Rabinowitch, Contributing Photographer)
From left, Shelly Rones, Shari Horne and Lee MacMorris portray three women socializing in a restaurant, when two of them learn that the third is living isolated because of fear. The skit is part of the film “Making the Invisible Visible, about ageism, produced by the Laguna Woods Community Bridge Builders group. (Photo by Mark Rabinowitch, Contributing Photographer)
Allan Williams (left), Eva Orozco and Ajit Gidwani portray friends who discuss prejudice in the health care system as it pertains to aging as well as race and sexual preference. The skit is part of the film “Making the Invisible Visible, about ageism, produced by the Laguna Woods Community Bridge Builders group. (Photo by Mark Rabinowitch, Contributing Photographer)
Shari Horne, left, Rebeca Gilad and Carol Glenn go over their lines for the film “Making the Invisible Visible, about ageism, produced by the Laguna Woods Community Bridge Builders group. (Photo by Mark Rabinowitch, Contributing Photographer)
Jack Maxwell and Shari Horne portray a grandson and grandmother in a skit about elder abuse in the film “Making the Invisible Visible,” produced by the Laguna Woods Community Bridge Builders. (Photo by Mark Rabinowitch, Contributing Photographer)
Show Caption1 of 5From left, Hannah Yaoz, Mark Schwartz, Toni Redman and Carol Glenn portray three generations of a family waiting in a hospital for word on whether a relative will survive a plastic surgery procedure that went wrong, in a skit on the stranglehold the beauty industry has on women. The skit is part of the film “Making the Invisible Visible, about ageism, produced by the Laguna Woods Community Bridge Builders group. (Photo by Mark Rabinowitch, Contributing Photographer)
ExpandWhile the film focuses on the indignities of aging in a youth-obsessed world, it also touches on discrimination based on race, gender, disability and sexual orientation – all insidious enough that even those at the receiving end often don’t realize what is coming at them.
The film consists of several skits, such as “Loss of Relevance,” “Becoming Invisible,” “When Does Old Age Begin,” “Elderspeak,” “Follow the Money,” “Gray Hair in the Workplace,” “It’s Up to Barbara” and “Who Me, Ageist?”
The skit “Follow the Money” illustrates the stranglehold the beauty industry has on women, and increasingly on men. The episode is related through the eyes of a grandchild who is aghast that her aunt may die from botched plastic surgery. Through a series of questions, she forces her mother to admit that she too had such surgery.
The child’s questions imply that plastic surgery is inconceivable to her, yet the segment also touches on the subject of shaming. Who benefits from our fear of aging and how will its tentacles reach the young?
In “Gray Hair in the Workplace,” an older woman is fired from her job after previously garnering awards for excellence. She hears that her job is no longer needed, but shortly after she is dismissed, the position goes to a younger man.
In “Who Me, Ageist?,” two younger women at a restaurant exhort a friend to hide her walker so as not to expose them all as “old.”
And in “The Last Game,” friends discuss prejudice in the health care system as it touches upon aging as well as race and sexual preference. Should Black patients seek Black doctors, should gays seek gay doctors, and should women use only female doctors?
Hide that walker, dye that hair and see that plastic surgeon is advice that is ostensibly well-meant, but, as the videos illustrate, it’s anything but.
The vignettes are based largely on research by Gilad.
“All examples (in the film) come from the real world,” she said. “I witnessed an incident like the one with the walker in Virginia.”
With a PhD in gerontology, Gilad drove the project in part inspired by her love of aging family members.
“I have always been interested in age and ageism,” she said. “My grandfather was a good role model.”
She also cited moving to Laguna Woods as an eye opener: “I looked at the 55- to 65-year-olds and how they treat the older residents 85 to 100.”
The film will serve as the foundation to workshops on combating ageism, Gilad said. The workshops are based on the methodology of Paulo Freire, a Brazilian pedagogue, who “believed that educators and students teach each other based on their life experiences,” she said.
The film will also serve as a trigger for conversations within small groups on participants’ life experiences. Trained group leaders will ask questions and lead participants to gain awareness of themselves and find their own paths to combat prejudices against older people.
At the root of conveying this knowledge is language. A training manual provides definitions of terms from “age” to “wellderly,” the latter meaning older people who are healthy.
“Gendered ageism” refers to differences in ageism as experienced by women and men. And, of course, “gray tsunami” refers to the growing number of older people. (In 2022 there were 58 million people over age 65 in the U.S; that number is projected to reach 82 million by 2050, according to the Population Reference Bureau in Washington.)
For those involved in the project, it has been a labor of love with deeply personal meaning.
Ed Green, 76, said that not only has he personally experienced ageism, he has overheard comments by people in their 20s about the limitations of older people.
“I have experienced antisemitism directed at me as well as comments about my age and physical abilities,” he said. “I believe ageism limits not only the older person but also the person or group fostering it.”
As a workshop facilitator, his goal will be to challenge the beliefs that many older people have of themselves.
“Aging just refers to a normal process,” he said, “not a list of things ‘older’ people can or cannot do.”
His wife, Judy Green, 70, is also among those training to conduct workshops. For her, the goal of helping increase self-awareness and reaching out to the community comes from her experiences teaching students studying to become social workers at CSULB.
“Helping students solidify field placements in agencies serving an aging population taught me to navigate meaningful discussions of our preconceptions of aging in small group seminars,” she said.
For Valerie Lipow, 70, ageism is “just another type of prejudice that distances neighbors.”
She said she experienced ageism while looking for work though not while on the job.
“I’m a woman, physically disabled and Jewish,” Lipow said. “Stereotypes abound all around me. Decisions made by others may have limited me but not blocked me.”
As a workshop leader, she hopes to “engage learners into looking closer at their assumptions about older adults.”
Sunita Saxena, 75, grew up seeing grandparents being treated with respect and dignity in her native India.
“To build a society here where every elderly person has rights inspired me to be a trainer,” she said.
She said she experienced vicarious prejudice in the U.S. when her daughter’s fellow students said everyone in her family worked at 7-11 stores. Saxena also once was told that she’d be more attractive if she dyed her gray hair.
“I want to build awareness that aging is a normal process and not an illness,” she said.
Dennis Backer, 78, helped write the script for “Follow the Money.”
“I remember being with my elderly mother at times when she was not spoken to directly by salespeople or even doctors,” he said. “They spoke to me, as though she could not understand or make her own decisions.
“I want to raise awareness about the lack of respect for the knowledge and experience that older individuals bring to the table,” he said.
Myung Sung’s interest in promoting seniors’ well-being intensified when she moved to Laguna Woods.
“As a retired nurse-educator, I want to contribute what I learned throughout my career and life in general,” she said. “I have noticed that many people are influenced by the external environment and become depressed and intimidated, such as others’ negative comments about one’s appearance, speech, illness and many areas of life.
“Ageism can destroy one person’s spirit that eventually would affect one’s life/world view.”
“Making the Invisible Visible” will be screened Monday, Feb. 24, at 4 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center. Doors open at 3:30 p.m. Admission is free to residents and their guests. For more information, email [email protected].
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