Gen Silent’s documentary niche is one that had been pretty much neglected as a subject for serious study up to its release in 2010: the lives of the aging LGBT population in America. Award-winning director Stu Maddux’s Good Samaritan bona fides are certainly undeniable. Although his film is no doubt coming from a place of empathy, at the same time it can also be an unflinchingly unsentimental look at the various pathways, some smoother than others, through the twilight of life that a few featured elderly LGBTs have taken.
The film’s scope is fairly limited geographically—it basically trains its eye on couples from the Greater Boston area. Nevertheless, it captures a fairly broad cross-section of older gay men and women—including a transwoman and Vietnam veteran named Krysallis Ann who is suffering from late-stage lung cancer. One of the key preoccupations of the documentary is the often-serious dilemma of elderly partners being split up when one is forced to uproot from their longtime domestic situation and away from familiar surroundings to a care home: and specifically, we learn of the fears that can often plague elderly LGBT nursing home residents regarding how they will be treated in the facility on the basis of their sexual orientation. But Maddux’s documentary sways more toward the human angle than any laser-focused critique of the social care system that can often make things so difficult for these vulnerable LGBT seniors.
There are stories of triumph, such as that of professor emeritus Lawrence Johnson, who has to relinquish his longtime partner, Alexander, to a nursing home and his struggle with the attendant frustration and guilt that decision brought with it: Johnson was on the brink of suicide when he discovered poetry as his existential saving grace. At the opposite end of the spectrum, we witness Krysallis Ann’s deterioration in self-care but is estranged from immediate family members and can’t get used to having 24/7 caregivers around her either. We see, however, that her isolation leads to the kind of unfortunate end-of-life scenario that no one should ever have to experience. This is a worthy LGBT activist documentary that tackles some crucial but often disturbing issues. Recommended. Aud: P.