For Tom Farr from Waterloo, being part of a documentary for the first time felt surreal.
“To have a camera crew follow you from the time you get out of bed, until you basically go back to bed, like they followed me the whole day, it was just surreal to be honest with you,” Farr told .
Farr was one of five residents from Schlegel Villages in southwestern Ontario featured in a new documentary titled The Green Bench, celebrating 10 years of the long-term care home’s Elder Wisdom campaign.
Schlegel Villages operates 20 locations across the province and includes the Schlegel UW Research Institute for Aging in Waterloo.
The campaign started in 2016 and encourages individuals to sit on a green bench and engage with seniors, learning from their experiences while challenging age-related stereotypes and highlighting what seniors contribute to society.
“The young people now don’t sit down with their grandparents and their parents and hear their stories like how I used to hear stories,” Farr said.
The documentary captured residents as they embarked on a journey to significant places in their lives. For Farr, who is nearly 60, that place was his childhood home in Elmira.
WATCH | Tom Farr from Schlegel Villages on visiting his childhood home in Elmira:
Waterloo’s Tom Farr shares what it was like to film The Green Bench documentary
The Green Bench focuses on seniors sharing meaningful stories from their lives. It follows five residents of Schlegel Village as they visit special locations. For many, including Waterloo’s Tom Farr, it was all about going home. He chatted with CBC K-W’s Carmen Groleau about his experience making the documentary and how he felt revisiting his childhood home in Elmira.
He mentioned that seeing the house was emotional since he hadn’t visited it for quite some time.
“When I was 23, I turned down buying the farm from my parents and when I look at what that farm is worth now and what they were offering it to me for, like hindsight is 20-20 of course, but the nice thing is it’s friends of mine who own it now,” he said.
Farr noted that returning brought back fond memories. It’s still the original house but has undergone some renovations.
“All the stuff they did to the interior was stuff my mom dreamed of and they brought that dream to life,” Farr said.
“They put a pool in right where my mom wanted one. It’s nice to see that they did all the renovations, but it’s still the old house.”
After visiting his childhood home, both the film crew and Schlegel Villages staff set up an Elder Wisdom bench at an Elmira pavilion where Farr engaged with community members for four hours.
“It was an honour to sit on it,” he said.
“We have a society that is hyper-focused on youth and I don’t think we spend enough time interacting with and listening to seniors; so at heart that’s what motivated me personally,” Fodey told . “I loved it from its onset; I read a small blurb about this opportunity and it spoke to me quite simply.”</t
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Waterloo’s Tom Farr shares what it was like to film The Green Bench documentary
The Green Bench focuses on seniors sharing meaningful stories from their lives. It follows five residents of Schlegel Village as they visit special locations. For many, including Waterloo’s Tom Farr, it was all about going home. He chatted with CBC K-W’s Carmen Groleau about his experience making the documentary and how he felt revisiting his childhood home in Elmira.
He mentioned that seeing the house was emotional since he hadn’t visited it for quite some time.
“When I was 23, I turned down buying the farm from my parents and when I look at what that farm is worth now and what they were offering it to me for, like hindsight is 20-20 of course, but the nice thing is it’s friends of mine who own it now,” he said.
Farr noted that returning brought back fond memories. It’s still the original house but has undergone some renovations.
“All the stuff they did to the interior was stuff my mom dreamed of and they brought that dream to life,” Farr said.
“They put a pool in right where my mom wanted one. It’s nice to see that they did all the renovations, but it’s still the old house.”
After visiting his childhood home, both the film crew and Schlegel Villages staff set up an Elder Wisdom bench at an Elmira pavilion where Farr engaged with community members for four hours.
“It was an honour to sit on it,” he said.
‘It spoke to me,’ director says
Sarah Fodey from Sand Bay Entertainment directed this film and finds its subject matter very personal.</t When she had a chance to create a film about Elder Wisdom benches, she jumped right in.“We have a society that is hyper-focused on youth and I don’t think we spend enough time interacting with and listening to seniors; so at heart that’s what motivated me personally,” Fodey told . “I loved it from its onset; I read a small blurb about this opportunity and it spoke to me quite simply.”</t
Fodey feels she’s well-suited for telling this story since she grew up around many seniors including her parents.
<img src="" alt="Sarah Fodey is a producer , writer , and director with Sand Bay Entertainment." (Sand Bay Entertainment)
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