The theme for this year's National Assisted Living Week is “Season of Reflection” which encourages assisted living communities around the country to host a variety of events that honor the individuals who reside, work, and volunteer in these communities.
This event provides a valuable opportunity for us to contemplate on the role cinema plays in the lives of senior citizens and acknowledge its significant contribution to their well-being and enrichment.
We share uplifting, educational, and relatable content for senior citizens. We aim to inspire librarians, educators, and community leaders to create meaningful and enriching cinematic experiences for this demographic.
As nursing homes strive to provide engaging activities and enrich the lives of their residents, the idea of screening films is a popular option. This simple yet powerful form of entertainment allows seniors to relive cherished memories, discover new stories, and foster a sense of community.
In this guide, we will explore the importance of obtaining Public Performance Rights (PPRs), discuss how to plan the equipment and setup, highlight strategies for organizing logistics, and promote the event to make film screenings at nursing homes an unforgettable experience.
The Benefits of a Nursing Home Film Screening
In nursing homes, where residents may face physical limitations and social isolation, hosting film screenings can be a transformative and therapeutic activity. Beyond its entertainment value, screening films at nursing homes offers a range of psychological benefits that contribute to the overall well-being and quality of life of residents.
- Social Engagement
Film screenings are a communal activity that promotes social interactions, reduces feelings of isolation, and encourages friendships among residents. The shared enjoyment of a movie can initiate conversations, laughter, and the development of meaningful relationships, enhancing the overall social fabric within the nursing home.
- Emotional Connection
Movies have a unique ability to evoke emotions and stir memories. Screenings can trigger nostalgia, joy, laughter, and empathy among residents. Engaging in these emotional experiences can be highly therapeutic, particularly for individuals who may be grappling with feelings of sadness or loneliness. Films have the power to transport residents to different eras, cultures, and experiences, allowing them to connect with their own personal histories or explore new worlds.
- Cognitive Stimulation
Films offer visual and auditory stimulation, engaging multiple senses and promoting mental activity. Following the plot, identifying with characters, and analyzing the storyline can help maintain cognitive skills such as attention, memory, and problem-solving. Additionally, films can spark intellectual conversations and debates among residents, encouraging critical thinking and enhancing mental agility.
- Therapeutic Escape
For individuals facing physical limitations or chronic health conditions, film screenings offer a therapeutic escape from daily challenges and pain. Movies provide a temporary respite, transporting residents to different worlds and allowing them to immerse themselves in captivating narratives. This escape can help alleviate stress, reduce anxiety, and provide a much-needed break from the realities of aging or illness. The power of storytelling through films offers a form of emotional and mental relief, contributing to overall psychological well-being.
- Meaningful Engagement
Film screenings can create opportunities for meaningful engagement and purposeful activities for nursing home residents. Residents can participate in the selection of movies, contribute to discussions about the films, or even share their own stories and experiences related to the themes explored in the movies. This active involvement gives residents a sense of autonomy, fosters their self-esteem, and reinforces their value as individuals with unique perspectives and insights.
Curate a Film Selection
Curating a film selection for nursing home screenings requires careful consideration of the residents' preferences, sensitivities, and diverse backgrounds. It is important to create a balanced collection of films that cater to a range of interests and age groups. By curating a thoughtful film selection, nursing homes can create an inclusive and enjoyable experience for residents, fostering a sense of connection, entertainment, and emotional fulfillment.
We've included some film ideas below ↓
The Drive to Sing
BRYCE DENNEY / UNITED STATES / 2022 / 76 MIN / DOCUMENTARY
No singing for two years?
Discover this inspiring story of resilience and community through the power of music during the pandemic. Through the unique lens of "car choirs," we feel the passion of singers and directors who HAD to find a way to do what they love.
Community choirs, a cherished pastime for many seniors, had to shut down to slow the spread of COVID-19. They tried Zoom meetings, but there was too much delay to hear each other and stay in sync. After trying many things, several tech-savvy musicians found that old-school microphones and FM radio allowed a chorus to sing safely, from separate cars. Despite many challenges, this brought back the joys of community singing during a time of isolation and loneliness.
Musicians Bryce and Kathryn Denney were one of the first to organize a car choir, and they helped choruses across the U.S. and Canada to do the same. Their work to enable choirs during the pandemic was featured in the New York Times and on the Sunday Today Show. They filmed events and interviewed singers and leaders to create this award-winning documentary: an uplifting story from a dark time.
Watch The Drive to Sing on Tubi, Hoopla, or Amazon Prime Video.
Learn more and request a screening of The Drive to Sing
Read our review of The Drive to Sing
Helping an Aging Parent: A Forty-Year Perspective Across Generations
JIM VANDEN BOSCH / UNITED STATES / 2023 / 28 MIN / DOCUMENTARY
Whether care is provided in a home or a nursing home setting, the dynamics of each family’s caregiving journey are decidedly different…
This third installment of the award-winning “My Mother, My Father” film series carries on the story of the Honel family, as they engage in very real conversations about dementia caregiving and quality of life – from idyllic expectations to bittersweet realities.
The film is unique in that it provides a nearly forty-year generational (and intergenerational) perspective on how caregiving and end-of-life decisions affect both the persons who are receiving care and those who are giving care. Through this extended window, the film allows us to witness various milestones in dementia caregiving and end-of-life care issues for one family, as caregivers become care receivers themselves, and children become adult caregivers.
The valuable insights (and hindsight) of the Honels’ journey will encourage other families to have their own challenging, but necessary, conversations on how to best manage care needs, address changing family dynamics, and plan for an optimal quality of life. Includes PDF Discussion Guide. Eligible for one (1) contact hour.
Read our review of Helping an Aging Parent
Do I Need This?
KATE SCHERMERHORN / UNITED STATES / 2023 / 63 MIN / DOCUMENTARY
Do I Need This? is a documentary film about consumerism, excess, and the stuff from which happiness is truly made. Critics call it ‘life changing’ and 'unique, quizzical, quirky, and funny.’ The award-winning film delicately interweaves the filmmaker’s complicated relationship with her family possessions, everything seemingly imbued with memories and meaning, together with a journey into the homes and minds of her fellow Americans.
When the filmmaker’s parents downsize into assisted living, and her mother starts to show signs of Alzheimer’s, the search turns to the stuff that really matters. On the surface, Do I Need This? is a joy ride through American excessive consumption habits; at its core, it is a profound, provocative, and genuine reflection on aging, family, legacy, and happiness. Do I Need This? is a perfect conversation starter for older adults and their families.
K-12 and higher education screenings only
Read our review
The Nan
JOSIE ROURKE / UNITED KINGDOM / 2022 / 95 MIN / COMEDY
Catherine Tate's iconic character Nan hits the big screen as she goes on a wild road trip from London to Ireland with her grandson Jamie (Mathew Horne) to make amends with her estranged sister Nell (Katherine Parkinson).
Through a series of flashbacks, we see the young sisters fall in love with the same handsome GI during World War II and how the consequences of this love triangle shaped Nan into the cantankerous old b*****d she is today. Militant vegan arsonists, Australian rugby teams, all-night raves, and crazed cops on motorbikes all make for a proper day out. Hilarious, action-packed, and surprisingly moving, this film is a love letter to outrageous, outspoken old ladies everywhere.
Best Sellers
LINA ROESSLER / CANADA + UNITED KINGDOM / 2021 / 102 MIN / COMEDY + DRAMA
In a last-ditch effort to save her father's publishing house, an ambitious young editor (Plaza) goes on a book tour with an author (Caine) who put the publishing house on the map decades before but is now bitter, booze-addled, and hasn't written a new book since.
"[A] wintry, elegiac ambiance permeates proceedings — particularly via Claudine Sauvé’s crisp, softly frosted lensing — from the get-go. But there’s some poignant pleasure in the journey, even as its spikier queries give way to carpe diem messaging and at least one insertion too many of “The Great Gatsby’s” oft-quoted final passage. ‘Best Sellers’ aims to provide succor to any viewers fearful that nobody cares for the written word anymore: Here, it’s bound paper that finally holds drifting generations together."
- Guy Lodge, Variety
Read our review of Best Sellers
Purchase Best Sellers from Screen Media
Senior Moment
GIORGIO SERAFINI / UNITED STATES / 2021 / 92 MIN / COMEDY + ROMANCE + DRAMA
After drag racing his vintage convertible around Palm Springs, a retired NASA test pilot (William Shatner) loses his license. Forced to take public transportation, he meets Caroline (Jean Smart) and learns to navigate love and life again.
“The issue of seniors losing their ability to drive — and the ensuing practical and existential difficulties that development engenders — is real and perhaps deserves more thought than what’s offered in Senior Moment. But as a glowing testament to what 90 can look like? Well, Senior Moment and especially Shatner simply can’t be beat. It seems there is hope for us all.”
- Kim Hughes, Original Cin
Stratton Castle: Tale of Jessie Golden Heart
ZELI DEMBER-SLACK, PEGGY ROGER / UNITED STATES / 93 MIN / DRAMA + HISTORY + ROMANCE
The Romantic True Story Of Two Lovers From Clashing Backgrounds Fighting
Against All Odds. A Scottish servant girl wars against her forbidden passion for the Master of the House!
A captivating tale based on a true story, Stratton Castle: Tale of Jessie Golden Heart from directors Zeli Dember-Slack (The Sweetest Heir) and Peggy Roger (The Measure Of Your Faith), this emotionally riveting film will take audiences inside the challenges of a forbidden love affair brimming with conflict and secrets.
In 1800s Scotland, social classes dictated all elements of daily life from what people ate, where they lived, and even who they loved. For young heir Walter Sinclair (Andrew Shelton, Gangster Land) and working-class Jessie (Kat Fairaway, Letters from the Heart), these societal restrictions mean they are forced to keep their forbidden love hidden to ensure they do not destroy everything both they and their families have ever known. While Walter’s father, Master Alfred Sinclair (Eric Roberts, The Dark Knight), is on his deathbed, Walter makes one final promise to marry a partner of a suitable station.
Shortly thereafter, Walter finds himself vehemently fighting to hide his love for the beautiful servant girl in order to honor his father and protect his family’s reputation. As their passion for each other develops, the lengths Walter and Jessie must go through in order to keep their relationship under wraps only intensify. As gossip makes its rounds and supplementary family secrets begin to come to the surface, it becomes clear the forbidden relationship threatens to ruin every aspect of their lives within Stratton Castle.
Will Jessie and Walter risk everything for love?
Purchase from Indican Pictures
One Moment
DEIRDRE CONNOR / UNITED STATES / 2021 / 103 MIN / COMEDY
Featuring the Final On-Screen Appearance of Late Film Icon Danny Aiello, Four Siblings Come to Learn What it Means to be “The Sandwich Generation”. A heart-warming story of middle-aged siblings struggling to manage their personal lives, families, and careers, while also caring for their recently widowed, aging father, Joe, a demanding and difficult man!... Welcome to the Sandwich Generation.
Stricken with grief from the loss of his companion, Joe (Danny Aiello) struggles to manage his new lifestyle and unwillingly leans on his children for support, all of whom have their own set of issues. Single mother Caroline (Adria Tennor, Bad Moms) whom Joe resides with, Fran (Frankie Ingrassia, “Goliath”) is in a closeted relationship, and Rick (Sal Rendino, “Billions”) who has constant tiffs with his sisters. At the end of their rope and unsure of the best path forward, the children realize that it is now their turn to do the unthinkable—parent their ailing father. As they embrace this new phase of life with open arms, it brings the entire family together proving that something beautiful can be born from something tragic.
Packaged with the right amount of emotional drama and beaming with a sentimental message of the importance of familial bonds, as well as cherishing time with loved ones, One Moment is a heartwarming tale that emerges as one of the must-see family flicks of the year.
San Jose Mercury News You have mentioned in your article that this film is "heartfelt, sentimental and immensely relatable". At the same time, Film Threat describes it as "beautiful from beginning to end."
Purchase from Indican Pictures
The Gliksmans
MICHAEL SKOLNICK / UNITED STATES / 2017 / 73 MIN / COMEDY
Presenting a lively and unexpected road trip adventure, The Gliksmans is an entertaining and madcap take on love and relationships in the golden years of life.
Barry and Barbara Gliksman, a spritely octogenarian couple, go through their morning routine: a big breakfast, a handful of pills, some bickering, plus a quick trip to the bank; a trip that goes wildly awry when they notice they’re being tailed by an aggressive truck driver. As the two navigate their way through Los Angeles something weird begins to happen – their simple trip turns into an absurd and fantastical escapade with psychedelics!
The Gliksmans has been at various festivals such as the BOCA RATON festival, LAUGHTER COMEDY festival, LOS ANGELES COMEDY film festival, and CHICAGO JEWISH film festival.
We are providing a little comic relief for the fall with the updated GOING IN STYLE comedy!
Purchase from Indican Pictures
Public Performance Rights
When screening films at nursing homes, it is essential to obtain Public Performance Rights. PPRs grant legal permission to publicly exhibit movies outside of private, home settings. While individual DVDs or streaming subscriptions grant personal viewing rights, they do not cover public screenings. To secure PPRs, nursing homes can contact licensing organizations such as Swank Motion Pictures. By obtaining PPRs, nursing homes can ensure compliance with copyright laws and enjoy a vast range of movie options for their residents.
Equipment and Setup
Creating a comfortable and immersive viewing experience is crucial for film screenings at nursing homes. Here are some considerations for equipment and setup.
- Display: Opt for a large-screen display, such as a projector or a large television, to ensure everyone can easily view the film.
- Sound: Invest in a quality sound system that provides clear audio. Consider using wireless headphones to cater to those with hearing difficulties or who prefer a personalized audio experience.
- Seating: Arrange comfortable seating, such as reclining chairs or plush couches, and ensure proper spacing to accommodate wheelchairs and mobility aids.
- Lighting: Dim the lights or use blackout curtains to create a theater-like ambiance during the screening.
- Accessibility: Subtitles or closed captioning should be available for those with hearing impairments. Ensure that the font size is large enough for easy reading.
Organize Logistics and Promote the Event
To ensure a smooth and successful film screening, it is essential to organize logistics and promote the event effectively:
- Scheduling: Determine a suitable date and time for the screening, considering the preferences and routines of the residents. Consider hosting screenings on a recurring basis to build anticipation and regular attendance.
- Staffing: Assign staff members to assist with setting up the equipment, managing seating arrangements, and addressing any technical issues that may arise during the screening.
- Refreshments: Offer popcorn, snacks, and beverages to enhance the movie-going experience. Consider catering to specific dietary restrictions and preferences.
- Invitations: Create eye-catching invitations or posters to generate excitement and inform residents about the upcoming film screening. Distribute the information through newsletters, bulletin boards, or digital communication platforms.
- Family Involvement: Extend invitations to residents' families, encouraging them to attend and make it a memorable intergenerational event. This fosters a sense of community and strengthens family ties.
Hosting film screenings in nursing homes goes beyond mere entertainment; it has a profound impact on residents' psychological well-being. By promoting social engagement, emotional connection, cognitive stimulation, therapeutic escape, and meaningful engagement, film screenings offer a holistic approach to enhancing the lives of nursing home residents. It gives them an opportunity to relish the magic of cinema and share communal experiences.