Director Kris Montag and co-producer Jessica Jennings grew up with parents who exhibited hoarding or "packrat" behavior, which many medical professionals believe to be related to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Like many such maladies, the dividing line between amusing personality attribute and diagnosable disability is not always clear here. Montag's father, though, obviously had it bad, and the recollections of the filmmaker's family describe a bizarre environment in which stacks of newspapers cut off the family's access to the kitchen sink (any attempt to tidy up invited the old man's ire). At first, the case of Jennings' dad seems markedly less severe, but a peek inside the barn shows that his mass of accumulated detritus is just more spread out. At once an entertaining portrait of eccentric yet familiar behavior and a testimony to family members' quiet long-term suffering in the face of mental illness, Packrat also looks at the professional side--interviewing a social worker and a researcher who talk about clinical views (some believe the condition may be related to Alzheimer's disease), as well as the owner of a company called Disaster Masters that specializes in "crisis management" for hoarded collections presenting health and safety issues. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (M. Tribby)
Packrat
(2003) 28 min. VHS: $199. Fanlight Productions. PPR. Color cover. Closed captioned. ISBN: 1-57295-410-8. Volume 19, Issue 6
Packrat
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