Involuntary Short Film | Chris & Dana

INVOLUNTARY / 13 minutes

INVOLUNTARY

Carlton, a man in his 70s suffering from Dementia, is moved from a nursing home in the middle of the night.

"I still have the images of this wonderful film seared in my brain."
-Sam Brooks, Director of Public Policy at the National Consumer Voice for Long-Term Quality Care, Washington DC.

Involuntary is the first film in a collection of narrative shorts which explores themes of moral responsibility through the lens of our treatment of older adults. All the film's storylines center around elder abuse, elder care, and the egregious, ongoing practice of patient dumping (the "dumping" of vulnerable older adults to homeless shelters, bus stops and sometimes the street from hospitals and nursing homes).

In a recent study, complaints regarding nursing facility-initiated discharges had been one of the most common type of complaints received by the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program for twelve years straight. Patient dumping often leaves no paper trail, so the full scope of the problem remains unknown.

With our fictional film, Involuntary, viewers experience the film largely from the perspective of the fractured terrified mind of our protagonist, Carlton, a victim of the heinous practice of patient dumping. Carlton is a forgotten man who has forgotten who he is. Through Carlton, we hope to give voice to our older adults who are overlooked and forgotten in this country.

Our collective empathy for older adults often becomes frayed. Perhaps our fear of death, as a society, clouds our most basic humanity towards those who are the closest to it.