Educational Media Reviews Online

The Fountaingrove Lodge at Santa Rosa, California is said to be the first LGBTQ friendly independent and assisting living facility to LGBTQ seniors and their allies. With the general aging and passing of people who specifically may have been youths during movements like Stonewall, this documentary introduces a continuing care retirement communities (CCRC) space where people can retire to live. Senior housing is a concern for people who wish to continue to live their lives out with dignity and support. The challenges for people with the orientation as LGBTQ is that there are fears of rejection. Fountaingrove accepts residents who would not qualify for low income senior housing in American cities. They also accept seniors with a straight orientation, known as allies. This is a touching point for some LGBTQ residents, but is accepted as such since heterosexual orientation outnumbers people with LGBTQ orientation. Current residents are interviewed through this documentary as they share their relationships and how they are living at the Lodge.

The Lodge can be watched as a case study or a marketing tool for the Fountaingrove. The strength in this documentary is that it does mention areas, such as health decisions and safety concerns that individuals or organizations should prepare before emergencies happen. This documentary can also be a starting point for people who want to consider senior living with a specific facility in mind. The weakness in this document, and there are a few points to consider. There is a great deal of information shared in this film, but there is no connectivity to the larger society issues, other than sharing the experiences of an aging population who is affluent and aging. There are some stereotypes that are revealed where it can be offensive. People of color are not represented in this documentary, and LGBTQ is only regarded as a lifestyle for this specific community who have specific experiences.

Another weakness in this documentary though is that there is not as clear identification of all the residents who spoke about their experiences, so when a resident passed, it wasn’t as clear as to whether that resident was interviewed or not. With the interviewing of residents though, there isn’t as much order, outside that these are current residents, and they have these concerns. There are no other points, other than residents themselves. This documentary will also not age well, The Covid-19 pandemic and West coast Wildfires are mentioned, but it is only seen as an afterthought. This documentary is not recommended for academic libraries, though it would probably find a space within an existing geriatric health/social library. It is a convincing marketing tool for the facility.

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