Jean Johnson knows a thing or two about staying active. She last went waterskiing at age 86, “on one ski,” she proudly points out. This surprising proclamation is one of several insightful moments brought out in a unique film-making project involving seniors at Greenway Retirement Village and local Brampton youth.
Jean and seven others at Greenway were featured in a project coordinated by Reel Youth, a national not-for-profit media empowerment program that aims to help provide practical skills development for at-risk youth through video production projects in the community. Andrea Duhamel, Marketing Manager at Greenway Retirement Village, was thrilled to be approached by Reel Youth to be a part of a project that helped not only help build relationships between youth and seniors, but also helped tell the very human stories of retirement home residents.
“We recognized how our residents are privileged and have gone through so much in their lives that they can share these experiences with the youth,” she said. “They can learn from each other.”
The project took place over two weekends in April, with the first night giving the seniors and youth an opportunity to spend time together and get to know each other. Over the following two days of filming the youth captured about two to three hours of film, getting the seniors to open up about their lives, including their childhoods, spouses, families, hobbies, and careers. And more than just narrating, the seniors invited the youth into their suites, shared their artwork, and displayed photos from their lives.
On the following weekend, the youth returned to work on editing the films down to about three minutes. “It was amazing,” Andrea noted, “to see how much pride the youth had during the editing process. You could see the relationship and comfort level between the youth and the resident.”
Walter Hall, one of the residents at Greenway who participated, calls himself a curmudgeon but his sense of humour comes across clearly in his film. Paired with one youth who was very shy, “it was incredible to see how Walter helped him come out of his shell,” Andrea said. Walter’s video, featured below, has been chosen to be presented at the Reel Youth Film Festival, taking place during the Vancouver International Film Festival, and to appear in the Reel Youth travelling festival after that.
Greenway hosted a film festival in June to show all eight films. Over 100 people showed up, including family, friends and residents. The result has been lots of buzz around Greenway. “Many of the other residents want to be involved in any future projects like this,” said Andrea.
Since filming ended, some of the youth have kept in touch. A lunch in August is being organized to reunite the participants and Greenway is particularly committed to trying to keep that relationship alive and those connections between generations maintained. “The residents were so proud of the youth. They would do it again in a heartbeat,” said Andrea.
Although she admits that she wasn’t exactly sure how it would turn out at the beginning, Andrea is so excited that Greenway was involved. “From the time I heard about Reel Youth, I was so inspired. I think older adults really inspire people to be the best they can be. It was just a fantastic partnership.”
To learn more about Reel Youth please visit their website. You can see all of the videos from this project here.