Deirdre Fishel has a 20-year history of directing both documentaries and dramas. Her films have premiered at Sundance and SXSW, and have been broadcast in 25 countries worldwide. Her documentary “Still Doing It,” about women over 65, was expanded into a book co-authored with producer Diana Holtzberg and published by Penguin Books. Recent projects include a web documentary, “Suicide On Campus,” produced in conjunction with the New York Times Magazine and a transmedia project, “The Boy Game.” Fishel is an Associate Professor at the City College of New York.
“Care” will premiere at the 2016 DOC NYC film festival on November 13. The film will have its national television broadcast premiere on World Channel’s “America ReFramed” in 2017.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
DF: “Care” takes an intimate look into the world of home elder care. Most of us want to age at home — I want to age at home, and for good reason. At a moment of losing independence being in a space you love and have history with can be a lifeline. But few of us know what it means to take care of someone who is really frail. So, the film takes you deep into that reality — those intimate moments of bathing and dressing, and the powerful relationships that happen between workers and elders when families are far away or have to work.
I often found watching hands-on care profoundly beautiful, but it’s very hard work — physically and emotionally — and right now the people who do the work, who are mostly women, women of color, and immigrants, are making poverty wages. The film follows them home to see just what they and their families are up against.
The film also follows one family, Toni and Peter, a teacher and a CBS executive, who were looking forward to retirement until Peter got a virulent form of Parkinson’s. And after four years of 24/7 care, they are losing their life savings and struggling to qualify for Medicaid: healthcare for the poor.
“Care” is an intimate exploration of the lives of workers, elders, and families, but it’s also a 360 look at how the current system is failing all of us.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
DF: In 2004, I directed a film about older women and sexuality, “Still Doing It,” because I wanted to fly in the face of America’s extreme ageism, and show the reality that women in their 60’s, 70’s and even 80’s are still living vibrant, amazing lives, and yes even still “doing it”.
My mother, in her early 70’s, was a character in that film. A decade later, however, she was growing frail, but she was adamant about wanting to stay her own home. As my sister and I began to investigate home care for her we were shocked by what we found: a system unbelievably difficult to navigate and, to our surprise, not covered at all by Medicare.
When I realized care workers, one of the fastest growing occupations in the country, were making poverty wages, I thought somebody has to be making a film about this, especially since the numbers of elders is going to sky rocket. When I realized no one was, I jumped in.
W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?
DF: A few things. I want them to have a profound respect for how hard and how important home care is and how crazy it is that the people who take care of our parents are so totally dismissed. I also want them to realize that despite happening in homes, behind closed doors, this is something that has to be brought out and discussed widely.
We hope the film is a wake-up call: even though we don’t want to think about getting older, this issue is going to become a crisis and needs to get on the public agenda fast.
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
DF: Getting elders to be in the film. We live in a society that values independence and self-reliance above all. Losing independence and being vulnerable is often seen as shameful, and I think that makes it tough to want to share publicly.
Peter didn’t immediately let me film him, even when his wife was on board. I didn’t know what would happen. I filmed with her a few times and then one day he was going to the park with his aid and just asked, “Why don’t come with me?” I realized that he meant, “Okay, let’s start shooting.” But it took some time to build that trust.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
DF: Our film was funded by the MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation/Just Films, Chicken & Egg Pictures, and ITVS. We did do a Kickstarter campaign before we got ITVS funding because we were in a funding crunch the last year and we didn’t know we would get ITVS funding.
In the end the Kickstarter money has been critical for us to use for festivals and the publicity around them. ITVS is paying for a broadcast piece and because of that they strictly won’t pay festival costs.
W&H: What does it mean for you to have your film play at DOC NYC?
DF: It’s huge because most of the stories were filmed here, so all of the characters in the film are coming to the screening. One of our stories took place in rural Pennsylvania, seven hours away, but they are coming as well. In addition, many of our organizational partners are here. And I am from New York City. My family lives here, I teach at City College here, and I went to graduate school here. So it’s coming home and being able to show the film to so many important people in my life. It feels very celebratory.
W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?
DF: The worst advice I ever got is, “If you can only show 10 minutes, show only one story.” [We followed that advice,] and the feedback we got was “Great story, but your proposal has four stories so where are they?”
I’ve gotten a lot of great advice on this film. Two especially great pieces of advice came from producer Julie Goldman. The first was, “Don’t leave that funder’s office without asking for more money.” The other came very late in our editing process. She said, “You need to bring a character in earlier, not have them appear for the first time so late in the film.” That note made a huge difference to the integrity of the film.
W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?
DF: It’s very easy as a woman to take things very personally. When I taught production at SVA I remember if I critiqued a male student’s script he would often say, “You just don’t get it.” Whereas women would say, “I don’t know. Do you think I have any talent?” I remember once getting a bad review and calling my manager at the time and saying, “Is my career over?”
I just think as women we tend to be very self-critical. In one way that’s good, because you keep striving to be better, but on the other hand, it’s tiring to have that kind of self-doubt.
I guess my advice to women is the advice I would give to my younger self, which is if someone says no, try to figure out why, then go back to them again. Get the team you need — the support of people who have strength in the areas you are weak. But believe in yourself and hang on to your vision for dear life, because making a movie is like riding a wild bronco.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
DF: That’s a tough one. [I’ll name some of my favorite directors.] I love Chantal Akerman and I love Su Friedrich. I love Agnieszka Holland and I love the work of Barbara Kopple and Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing. I love a lot of film work in a lot of genres by a lot of incredible women.
W&H: Have you seen opportunities for women filmmakers increase over the last year due to the increased attention paid to the issue? If someone asked you what you thought needed to be done to get women more opportunities to direct, what would be your answer?
DF: It’s interesting to me that it’s only now that people are waking up to the fact of how few women there are in narrative filmmaking. I started in the dramatic film world 25 years ago and I just couldn’t believe how few women there were. I left after about seven years because I found it so hard to navigate as a woman.
When I was a directing fellow at the AFI there were 26 men and seven women. When I went to Sundance two years later, there were 13 men in competition and three women. And all of these very nice guys in the film business would just flirt with you as if you had to accept that in order to do business with them.
Given what the Academy has done, I’m sure it has to have changed this past year. But I’m not in the dramatic film world anymore. I’ve been in documentaries for over a decade. And there have been women in that world for a while — white women, that is. I think the place where the documentary community still falls really short is in terms of diversity. So what we need are a lot more women of color and I think we have a way to go and have to work very hard in order to make that happen.
