Independent Lens
When Claude Got Shot
After being shot in the face by 15-year-old Nathan King, Claude’s path to recovery leads to forgiveness. But that path is paved with the complexities of race, violence, and justice.
Almost Home
The real stories of aging include couples both bonded and divided by disability and nursing assistants doing unsavory work for poverty wages.
- Series
- Independent Lens
- Premiere Date
- February 21, 2006
- Length
- 90 minutes
- Funding Initiative
- Open Call
Producer/Director
Brad Lichtenstein
Brad Lichtenstein is a filmmaker, virtual reality storyteller, radio producer, and founder of 371 Productions. He has been nominated for two Emmys and won two DuPonts and a Peabody. Recent films include the PBS FRONTLINE documentary American Reckoning (with Yoruba Richen) and the Participant documentary Messwood (with Emily Kuester). When Claude Got Shot… Show more
Producer/Director
Lisa Gildehaus
Lisa Gildehaus began her career at Iowa Public Television in 1992 as a segment associate producer and editor. In 1994, she joined The Duncan Group, a company that produced for The Learning Channel, PBS, and Discovery International. She served as series associate producer for the 13-part international program Mystic Lands. She began her own production… Show more
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The Film
Almost Home is a feature-length documentary that follows the daily lives of residents and staff at Saint John’s On The Lake, a retirement community in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Through a memorable cast of characters, candid interviews, and true-life drama, Almost Home presents real stories of aging — frightening, tender, funny, surprising, and honest.
At Saint John’s, an upscale retirement community with bright, spacious living quarters, residents mingle for afternoon cocktails, choose their own daily schedules, and pursue hobbies like woodworking and playing bridge. But they also struggle with the mundane and often unspoken facts of aging, including disability and dementia, changing relationships, and shrinking independence.
Almost Home offers an inside look at the lives of these residents, their families, and those who care for them, as each adjusts to the challenges of growing older. Almost Home filmmakers Brad Lichtenstein and Lisa Gildehaus introduce couples bonded and divided by disability, children torn between caring for their dependent parents and their own families, nursing assistants doing difficult work for extremely low wages, and visionary nursing home director John George, who is committed to transforming his century-old hospital-like institution into a true home.
Under George’s leadership, Saint John’s On The Lake is replacing its 135-year-old medical model of care (think hospital), with a social one (think home). His goal is to transform the way people see nursing homes — not as institutions of boredom and despair, but as vibrant communities where residents live rich and fulfilling lives. To succeed, he will have to win over skeptical managers, resistant nurses, overworked and underpaid nursing assistants, complacent residents, and often overwhelmed family members.
In a time when the topic of aging is often dismissed or ignored, Almost Home bravely challenges stereotypes and assumptions about seniors to reveal a truthful and thought-provoking portrait of life in a retirement community.
