“Take Me Home” follows Anna as she struggles to make sense of her contained yet continually changing world.
SYNOPSIS
The feature film takes place in Orlando, Florida in the harsh aesthetic of sun, rain, heat, and dampness. We are close up on this intimate portrait. Occasionally the camera pulls back, offering relief from the stifling home or a perspective on this microcosm. We experience the geography of the character’s world in trips to the grocery store, the beach, the library. It’s a tiny world but this is their life. Dad and Mom put on a brave facade - yet Anna never pretends, her honesty calls out the bullshit.
The story develops gradually, we’re so involved with the characters that we hardly notice the arc. It’s a slowly unfolding horror story but gently done, full of humanity. This tiny nucleus of frail human beings struggling with their problems becomes an existential comment on our ableist world. The photography of the characters is almost camouflaged, seeping into their environment.
TAKE ME HOME empowers the disabled character and highlights the ethical dilemma of caretaking in the impossible American Healthcare system. There are glimpses of privilege and capitalism - who can get caregiving and who can’t? Who gets to live a respectable life after they have limited abilities?
What is it to disappear when you’ve never even been seen?
Director Statement
My work often examines cultural divides, intimate harrowing moments and transcending language. I am the middle child of eleven siblings who I help take on borderline personality, PTSD, depression and intellectual/developmental disability (I/DD). Growing up in this family has given me an understanding of the nuance and humanness of complicated, flawed, and beautiful people. In this fast competitive world, I think most about the youngest sibling with a Cognitive/Developmental Disability (CDD) and how the world isn’t made for her. This story is based on the life of my sister Anna, and how she was born extremely premature, which left her with little short term memory. She will never be able to live on her own. So many people’s lives are altered the moment a parent dies, but even more so when they inherit their family’s needs. It is a sudden learning curve to figure out the bureaucracy for a disabled sibling. The best practice is to honor and empower self-direction, but how do we weigh each person's independence? There is a wait list of over 15,000 people for Assisted Living in most states and the cost is exorbitant. The film does not solve this problem, but instead offers an alternate reality. We are left with a sense of hope with the possibility that small changes to create an integrated world could make everyone's life better. There is light through the rain and heat, it shines through insignificant objects that only Anna values and thus creates a gentle reminder of hope.
Supporter Statement
"Never feeling forced or contrived this is a film that feels as though it was ripped from life." Unseen Films
"Take Me Home is a film drenched with love: unexpected, fulfilling, and necessary love that comes with growing up, maturity, and realizing your own potential." - Awards Daily
"deeply human...visually captivating" - Respectability
"Take Me Home” is a poignant and contemplative short film that adeptly examines the intricacies of human communication and its profound impact on interpersonal relationships." - ZIZ
“Take Me Home” follows Anna as she struggles to make sense of her contained yet continually changing world. It is based on the short film of the same title, which screened at Academy Qualifying festivals such as Sundance, SXSW, deadCenter FF (Special Jury Award), and LAAPFF (Golden Reel Best Short). The proof of concept was a Variety Prediction For Your Consideration for the 2024 Academy Award shorts nomination.
We are especially excited that the power of the film will be celebrated at The White House on June 18, 2024. The evening will be live-streamed to celebrate the Olmstead Act with representatives from the Dept of Justice, Dept of Education and Dept of Health & Human Services.
Audiences resonate with Anna Sargent’s performance proving that the cognitively disabled actress can lead a film. The subtleties of her reactions and depth of emotion helps the audience understand her marginalized voice.
ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)
Director Liz Sargent
Liz Sargent is a Korean American Adoptee writer and director, who's award-winning work explores themes of adoption, disability and family. She has been awarded a NY Emmy, Best Director at Diversity in Cannes, Best Screenplay at Brand Film Festival London. Her films have been released in 6 languages, screened at Venice Biennale Danza, Lincoln Center and broadcast on PBS. The short film STRANGERS’ REUNION about an adoptee reunion was one of five films chosen by Ritz-Carlton and Hearst to be made with mentorship by Mike Figgis and production by RSA Hong Kong. TAKE ME HOME is a short film about disability, family, and communication. The script was awarded a Julia S Gouw Fellowship with CAPE and Janet Yang, a Reel Sisters Fellowship 2022, Asian Women Giving Circle grant and raised 30K on Kickstarter. Liz incorporates her extensive background as a choreographer trained at North Carolina School of the Arts into her commercial and experimental work alike. Experimental dance film collaborations include work with Pam Tanowitz and Fisher Center at Bard, Eiko Otake and Jacob’s Pillow, and Adrienne Westwood and Angelica Negron. The extension of her personal stories have been told through podcasts and in her story slam that won the Korean American Story ROAR in Chicago. She is a Ryan Murphy HALF INITIATIVE Mentee and was a top 3 finalist for the SeriesFest Shondaland Directing Mentorship 2022.
Co-Producer Ai-Jen Poo
Ai-jen Poo is a next-generation labor leader, award-winning organizer, author, and a leading voice in the women’s movement. She is the president of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, executive director of Caring Across Generations and a trustee of the Ford Foundation. She recently served as a commissioner on President Biden’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.
Poo is a nationally recognized expert on the care economy and is the author of the celebrated book The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a Changing America. She has been recognized among Fortune’s World’s 50 Greatest Leaders and Time’s 100 Most Influential People, and received a MacArthur Fellowship, commonly known as a “Genius Grant.” Most recently, she received the Gleitsman Citizen Activist Award from the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School.
Poo has been a featured speaker at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Milken Institute Global Conference, TEDWomen and the Skoll World Forum. She has made appearances on PBS, Nightline, MSNBC and CBS; and has been a guest on popular podcasts such as On Being with Krista Tippett, We Can Do Hard Things and The Ezra Klein Show. Poo earned a B.A. in women’s and gender studies at Columbia University and holds honorary degrees from CUNY and The New School.
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