Front Porch in Film: Familiar Touch released to critical acclaim

Familiar Touch, a “coming-of-old-age film” now showing in select theaters, was made in collaboration with the residents and staff of Villa Gardens, a Front Porch community in Pasadena, California. Along with rave critical reviews, a number of articles are highlighting the role that the community played in the creation of the film.

In its review, the New Yorker notes “Familiar Touch was shot at Villa Gardens, a retirement community in Pasadena, and conceived in close collaboration with the center’s residents and care workers, some of whom appear as background players. (According to the film’s production notes, residents also participated in various behind-the-scenes roles, including production design, casting, and camerawork.) It’s fitting, then, that what passes onscreen between Ruth and her caregivers is a wry spirit of collaborative improvisation, as if the characters themselves were taking part in an acting exercise.”

This Los Angeles Times piece on Familiar Touch lifts the curtains and shows the intergenerational connections made during the filmmaking process between residents of Villa Gardens and filmmakers, as well as the input residents had on the film, from casting background actors to being crew members. Director Sarah Friedland “heard about Villa Gardens from the sister of her own grandmother’s caregiver, and it was exactly what she wanted: a place with the resources to accommodate her crew that felt appropriate for the story she was trying to tell.”

In IndieWire, Friedland shares, “I think we tend to think about aging communities and particularly aging communities where there is care provided as spaces where people go to die rather than spaces of living.” The article goes on to explain that “The idea to film at Villa Gardens involved many moving parts and big questions (who would be involved, what would they do on the set, what about residents who didn’t want to be involved, how would they handle medical emergencies, and so much more), but it all started with the residents themselves.”

Vogue highlights the “unique experimental artist residency between a film crew and a care community, Villa Gardens in Pasadena, where they set up a five-week soup-to-nuts filmmaking workshop… ‘Filmmaking is neglected as a subject of lifelong learning, largely because there’s this ageist belief that older adults can’t do anything with technology, which is quite untrue,’ Friedland points out. ‘Watching people draw upon their past lives and skills and translate that into cinematic craft was really exciting.'”

In Broadway World, the film’s lead actor Kathleen Chalfant described working at Villa Gardens. “I am a contemporary of most of the residents of Villa Gardens. To be surrounded by people who were like those in the movie kept me honest. And there were always people there to say, ‘No, that isn’t the way it is’ or ‘Have you ever thought of this?’ To be given a license, for instance, for the humor in the movie, was very important.” 

And on Familiar Touch’s social media, Villa Gardens residents themselves speak about their roles in creating the film. There are also memories from last fall’s Los Angeles premiere at AFI Fest, with Villa Gardens residents and staff on the red carpet.

Learn more about Familiar Touch on their website, including opportunities to see the film at a theater near you.

Learn more about Villa Gardens here.