Educational Media Reviews Online

The pandemic and its devastating effects on nursing home residents, as told through the visual diary of the young Black residents of Coler, a nursing home facility on Roosevelt Island in New York City.

Coler is the home to Reality Poets, a group of Black men whose encounter with gun violence left them paralyzed and in need of assisted living or nursing home care, which led them to residency in Coler. Once in the institution these men formed a group of poets and rappers whose words spoke of their lives and struggles on the Street. They began sharing their stories with the wider New York community and they gained a following. Along with their allies from Open Doors, Jennlie Brewster and Dexter, the Reality Poets planned to create a documentary about their lives. When COVID struck in March of 2020 , the residents were confined to the building and grounds of Color, the film they made became a searing indictment of the indifference shown by public officials and health care administrators and the outright lies they told the media about nursing homes in general and the conditions at Coler specifically. The documentary creates a suffocating, frightening, and authentic view of the decision by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo to send COVID patients into nursing homes which brought death and psychological torture to the residents of Coler who saw the disease sweeps through their institution like fire through dry grass. Ultimately the residents endured 388 days of isolation from the world.

The film is enlivened by illustrative special effects and rapping from the Reality Poets but, at times, drags. The editing is not nearly as tight as it could be and there are often scenes that could be cut differently to maintain the story but shorten the scene. The length and expletives make the film less useful for the K-16 audience, which often has 75 or 50-minute class times. However, it would be useful for community groups, advocates for social justice, and, of course, those in the public health field.

Awards:
Winner Best Feature Documentary at Blackstar Film Festival 2023; AWARD WINNER Hernandez/Bayliss Prize For Triumph Of The Human Spirit at Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival

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