Tight Knit™ is a content series about the many ways people are working to build stronger relationships and communities. This season explores the complexity and joy inherent in providing care for an older family member. The stories provide a glimpse into a life stage that is or will become familiar to many of us, as the number of family caregivers grows rapidly. By the end of 2020, an estimated 117 million older Americans will need assistance of some kind.
Increasingly, it’s those closest to us – our partners, parents, siblings, friends and neighbors – who take on the many visible and hidden responsibilities associated with care. And, as our society adapts to the new norm of social distancing, it’s important to consider the additional impact it will have on caregivers.
Tight Knit™ opens a door into the day-to-day lives of caregivers in Southeast Michigan and Western New York (regions central to the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation’s mission) through eight podcast episodes and two short documentaries.
While the stories provide different experiences, they are universal in recognizing the family caregiver as a vital and selfless part of every community, deserving our unlimited support, attention and advocacy.
Shaken by the news of his father’s dementia, artist Maleonn creates “Papa’s Time Machine,” a wondrous time-travel adventure performed on stage with life-size mechanical puppets. Through the play’s production, he confronts his own mortality. Maleonn finds grace and unexpected joy in this moving meditation on art, the agonies of love and loss, and the circle of life.
A film about Maria Irene Fornes and her unexpected friendship with filmmaker Michelle Memran
To A More Perfect Union: U.S. v Windsor is a feature-length documentary that tells a story of love, marriage and a fight for equality. The film chronicles unlikely heroes -- octogenarian Edie Windsor and her attorney, Roberta Kaplan, on their quest for justice: Edie had been forced to pay a huge estate tax bill upon the death of her spouse because the federal government denied federal benefits to same-sex couples – and Edie’s spouse was a woman. Deeply offended by this lack of recognition of her more than forty-year relationship with the love of her life, Edie decided to sue the United States government – and won. Windsor and Kaplan’s legal and personal journeys are told in their own words, and through interviews with others of the legal team, movement activists, legal analysts, well-known supporters and opponents. Beyond the story of this pivotal case in the marriage equality movement and the stories behind it, the film also tells the story of our journey as a people, as a culture, and as citizens with equal rights.
TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH follows concerned citizens living at the frontiers of extreme oil and gas extraction, bearing witness to a global crossroads. They call for human ingenuity to rebuild society at the end of the fossil fuel era.
TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH brings forward the voices of those who not only denounce the rise of extreme energy, but also envision the new world that is taking shape in its stead: a future beyond the resource pyramid, a post-growth economy.
Featuring Academy Award winner Marcia Gay Harden, IN THE NIGHT I REMEMBER YOUR NAME is a daughter’s chronicle of her mother’s struggle with Alzheimer’s. It is the story of a grandmother’s grief as she begins losing the very abilities that her new granddaughter is learning. It is the story of a pastor’s relationship with God as she questions what is happening to her. It is a journey from anguish to acceptance. And in the end, it is a story of joy.
SPLIT is a candid, poignant, and often humorous film about kids and divorce made exclusively from the point of view of the children...
no adults, no experts...just kids speaking the powerful truth of what is on their minds and in their hearts.
SPLIT is a deeply personal film that explores the effects of divorce on children. The film features twelve children aged 6-12, who explore the often frightening and always life altering separation of their parents.