Web series intended to inspire isolated seniors
They had Bobbi Jo Hart at the opportunity to connect with isolated seniors.
Few have been unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the lives of older Quebecers have been most profoundly upended. Most rarely leave home and the majority have not hugged — or, in some cases, even seen — children or grandchildren in months.
And so when Hart, an award-winning, Montreal-based documentary filmmaker, was approached to direct a web series designed to support and encourage the senior community, she jumped at the chance.
“I just loved the mission,” she said. “I have been really affected by what has happened to our seniors in the community.”
We're All in This Together, an 18-episode web series, goes live Friday at 4 p.m. on Youtube and Facebook with an entertaining and informative first episode, Holiday Baking with Hainya & Linda.
A collaboration between ELAN Quebec (the English Language Arts Network) and Seniors Action Quebec, the series is a community initiative designed to reach English-speaking seniors across the province with online episodes featuring entertainment, activities and conversations which are “specifically for them and about them,” said Guy Rodger, executive director of ELAN Quebec.
“We have all been through a difficult time and it is more important than ever to pull together and make sure our loved ones know that, even if we can't be with them, we're all in this together,” said Senior Action Quebec executive director Vanessa Herrick.
The project, funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage, has come together quickly. Funding was confirmed in September — total budget, for production as well as purchase of tablets and smart television sets for some seniors, is $440,000 — and Hart was hired in October. She's director, line producer and project manager, which means she is charged with finding characters and venues — and, basically, making the series happen.
Episodes are to be posted online at two-week intervals and subjects include book clubs, exercise, art therapy and a pub night. Topics are selected and vetted by a focus group of seniors or people who work with seniors “to make sure we were bringing them things in which they're interested,” Herrick said.
For the book club segment, focus group members said they really wanted Louise Penny, the beloved Knowlton-based author of the enormously popular Inspector Gamache series. When Hart learned this, she was so nervous “I couldn't sleep.”
Hart emailed Penny's website, explaining what the series was about and “within a half-hour, Louise Penny writes me back and says, `I love what you guys are doing.' ”
Penny agreed to a one-hour interview, to be filmed in January at Brome Lake Books in Knowlton. Among questions she will answer will be those posed by seniors.
The second episode, set to go live the week of Dec. 21, is an uplifting holiday concert. It was shot at Ursa, an intimate Mile End venue belonging to singer and songwriter Martha Wainwright, and performers include Grammy Award-winning jazz artist Jennifer Gasoi, Juno Award-winning blues artist Dawn Tyler Watson, Oscar Peterson Award-winning jazz singer Susie Arioli and the Solstice Trio. Exceptionally, it runs 60 minutes; the others are 30 minutes.
Although the series is semi-scripted, it also has a documentary element of “letting it happen,” Hart said. “We wanted it to feel like a senior coming into their living room.”
Hart also wanted for the series to feature an intergenerational element.
“At first we thought seniors only — but a lot of seniors are missing their grandchildren,” she said.
So, although the debut episode features Hainya Wiseman baking sugar cookies with daughter-inlaw Linda Wiseman, it begins with a montage featuring children.
“I wanted the idea of children drawing rainbows and showing pictures of their grandparents — of letting seniors know we think they are important,” she said.
And the episode is as much about connecting as it is about baking cookies. As they prepare, decorate and bake holiday cookies, the two women discuss personal challenges and coping mechanisms. Hainya, for instance, reveals that she lost her husband recently.
“When we focus on other people,” she tells the camera, “we don't focus on our loneliness.”