Communiqué
Reflect on aging and transformation over the course of 16 years in “Wisdom Gone Wild” on POV – Nov. 20 at 10 pm
< < Back toWisdom Gone Wild
on POV
Monday, November 20 at 10 pm
A new look at dementia and caregiving, observed over 15 years. A Japanese American mother and daughter evolve their troubled relationship through the process of caregiving.
Wisdom Gone Wild humanizes dementia and presents a daughter’s evolution towards compassionate caregiving.
At 93, Rose Tajiri is a time traveler, a history keeper and a chronicler of Japanese American experience. Diagnosed with dementia at the age of 76, Rose’s non-chronological access to key historical events is cued through daily encounters and reminiscences.
Her daughter, Rea, has reluctantly become her caregiver despite their difficult past. Embarking on a fifteen-year odyssey, Rea gains wisdom through listening to the metaphors in her mother’s conversations. She interprets Rose’s stories to reveal her incarceration in a World War II concentration camp and a childhood as the daughter of sharecroppers in California’s strawberry fields.
The new meanings help caregivers understand Rose’s needs and revise their care. Rea learns to identify Rose’s hopes and fears as they create a unique relationship based on play, improvisation and humor. The two travel together towards end of life, each transformed by a journey through memory and the mind.