Write a 5-7 paragraph paper that proves to me that you watched a film, noting detail about the experience of the older characters and tie their experience to 2 or 3 important passages in your textbook using apt summaries and smartly chosen direct quotes and page numbers (Hillier and Barrow). See the sample outline below for more instructions about the paper you will write/submit.
Choose ONE of the following documentaries / feature films and take NOTES while you are viewing it so that you can use snippets of important dialogue and descriptions of important scenes:
Yes, a few of these are available via livestream on Netflix, but that should not be your ONLY criteria for choosing your film. (Or just that it was the shortest run time on this list.) Some are available at your local public library for free. And even if you paid to stream them from Amazon or another source, the cost is fairly low compared to a textbook cost! Read about a few of these on Wikipedia, Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB and choose the one that has a lot of strong criteria that will help you write a substantial paper showing attention to detail about aging and critical thinking about aging issues.
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Documentaries
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Feature Films Based on Real People
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Feature Films Based on Imagined People
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Advanced Style (2014)
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Beginners (2010)
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About Schmidt (2002)
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Age of Champions (2011)
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Fred Won't Move Out (2012)
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Age-old Friends (1989)
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Alive Inside (2014)
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Iris [Murdoch] (2001)
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Amour (2012)
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Been Rich All My Life (2006)
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Love and Mercy (2015)
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Assisted Living (2003)
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The Cats of Mirikritani (2006)
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Murder or Mercy (1987)
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The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012)
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Cyber-Seniors (2014)
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The Straight Story (1999)
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Boynton Beach Club (2005)
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Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me (2014)
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Tuesdays with Morrie (1999)
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Cloudburst (2011)
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It Was a Wonderful Life (1993)
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The World's Fastest Indian (2005)
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Dimished Capacity (2008)
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Read a movie review. Yes, you can read a movie review but CREDIT that reviewer if you even use one word of their summary or interpretation.
Be very careful to NOT use other people's writing uncredited in your paper. You will fail this paper if you do that. You can read a movie review in addition to watching the film, but if you use any part of it, you have to put what you use in quotation marks and then credit the source with film critic's name in the paragraph and the full url at the end. I'm evaluating YOUR critical thinking, so you need to present your thinking as separate from any guidance a reviewer might offer.
Focus on the older characters.Some of the above films include younger characters. When you watch the film and write your paper, focus on the older characters in the film. You can talk about the younger people, but only in how the older characters perceive them, how the older characters relate to them and respond to them. Focus on the older characters.
The purpose of the assignment is to encourage you to empathize with older adults, to better understand their strengths and challenges, and to learn from their complex personalities and their vast experience, so FOCUS on them and not the young adults who might be in the film.
Take notes about aging issues: As mentioned above, take notes as you watch the film. You might want to print the IMDB list of character names (and actors portraying them) before you start so that you can keep straight who is saying what. You might need to pause and rewind to write down a really eye-opening line of dialogue or quote from a documentary interview. These details in your paper will show me you watched the film with attention to detail related to aging.
Write a title that is also the APA citation for your documentary / film:
Use the APA format for your film as the title of your paper. You can get information from IMDB. Hereis the format: Producer, Director, (Year), Film title. Country: Company.
Here is a sample film written in that format. Note the film title is in italics with only the initial word capitalized (that's just a weird APA thing):
Bender, L., & Tarantino, Q. (1994). Pulp fiction. United States: Miramax.
Suggested Outline:
I. Introduction. Explain the most significant topic related to aging in the film / documentary. Give the name of the film and the year it was directed. You can introduce the main character and the actor/actress playing that character here or in the body of the paper.
II. Explain all the factors that influenced your choice of the film. You might mention the abundance of information in the textbook that ties in with the film's themes, an actor whose work you admire, the time period within the film, the date it was released, the availability of the film, the type of film (feature film or documentary), the culture(s) depicted, language, the ease and cost of availability, and even the length. Hopefully, at least one of selection criterion is substantial and not trivial!
III. Provide a very brief summary in your own words (not from the Internet). Provide character names (with actor names in parentheses after as the easiest way to credit them. For example, you might write, "When watching The Notebook, I was moved by how much dedication (James Garner)
IV. Describe an issue of aging that was depicted in the documentary or film you watched, and bring in at least 3 details from the textbook (with a summary, quotes, and page numbers). You might need to divide this section into 2 or 3 paragraphs to convey detail, connections, and critical thinking.
V. Conclude by sharing an insight (an epiphany-look that up in the dictionary) about what life is like for older adults and what you learned from watching the documentary / film. How will you change your thinking, your behavior, your work as a health care professional, your interaction as a member of an extended family based on what you learned by watching this documentary/film?