Reviews
HAAG’s Older Tenants Voice Newsletter reviews books movies about older people, housing and homelessness, and we love to see when these issues are brought into the spotlight.
Parasite
Parasite (2019) is a gory Korean psychological thriller, so perhaps not the review you were expecting to read in our regular Older Tenants Voice movie review column? We’re reviewing this movie not only because it’s an unmissable masterpiece of cinema, collecting 4 Oscars, but because it’s probably the most relevant film about older people’s housing… …
Posted in: Movie Reviews
Calle Malaga
Calle Málaga is the story of Maria Angeles (Carmen Maura) and the lively community she is a part of in Malaga street in the picturesque port city of Tangier, Morocco. Maria was born in Tangier, everybody on the street knows her. Her husband and many friends are buried in the local cemetery. Maria’s family were… …
Posted in: Movie Reviews, Elder Rights
The People vs Robodebt
The People vs Robodebt is a powerful and disturbing three part SBS docudrama. It’s based on the lived experience of victims of unjust Centrelink debts, plus Centrelink workers, a political staffer and legal experts. Robodebt was automated “income averaging”, a policy designed and implemented by federal government before it was stopped as being unlawful. It… …
Posted in: Movie Reviews
The Blue Trail
Set in a near future in Brazil, this film follows Tereza, a 77 year old woman who has lived her whole life in a small town, and is still working in a factory when we meet her. She receives an official government order that forces her to relocate to an isolated and unknown “Colony” for… …
Posted in: Movie Reviews
The Boroughs
Life in a retirement village can be quite an adventure. This is certainly true for those living at The Boroughs in the beautiful surrounds of the New Mexico dessert. ‘The Boroughs’ becomes home for a reluctant Sam (Alfred Molina), still grieving from the death of his wife. At first, Sam is not wanting to join in with… …
Posted in: Movie Reviews, Retirement Villages
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth
It’s 1954 in St Louis, Missouri. The city is booming, but downtown is controlled by slumlords, keeping the mostly black urban poor living in intolerable conditions. City traders want them out of their unsightly homes, so Pruitt-Igoe is constructed, a massive Public Housing estate promising dignity and equality for the city’s workers. But it was… …
Posted in: Movie Reviews, Public Housing
Careless
In the winter edition of Older Tenants Voice we told you about the film Careless premiering at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). We’re so excited to let you know that this film, featuring HAAG’s Mornington care finder worker Hanh Vu and her client Beverly, has had a cinematic release! This funny, moving documentary follows… …
Posted in: Movie Reviews
The Salt Path
Raynor Winn and her husband Moth, both in their 50’s, lose their farm and livelihood after a friend’s investment scheme fails and he sues them. If this isn’t bad enough, at the same time Moth is diagnosed with a terminal neurological illness. With very little money, and nowhere to go except sleeping on friends couches… …
Posted in: Book Reviews
The Thursday Murder Club
The Thursday Murder Club was a hotly contested ‘secret Santa’ gift at HAAG’s end of year party, and it was easy to see why. The Thursday Murder Club is ‘cosy crime’ at its best, set in Cooper’s Chase, an upmarket retirement village in England. The Thursday Murder Club is a group of residents – Elizabeth,… …
Posted in: Book Reviews, Retirement Villages
Forgotten Australians – Life Stories Project
The Alliance for Forgotten Australians (forgottenaustralians.org.au) have produced a series of Life Stories about the lives of some of the Forgotten Australians who endured hardship, poverty and cruelty at the hands of people who were supposed to care for them. Many of them were child migrants who were brought from overseas orphanages and sent to… …
Posted in: Book Reviews
A Safe Distance: Surviving Religious Trauma
In “A Safe Distance: Surviving Religious Trauma”, HAAG member Steve Hyndes candidly shares his journey from life as a Roman Catholic priest to building a new life with his wife Paula and a growing family. From the age of 15, Steve felt the pull towards priesthood, but it wasn’t until 17 that he entered the… …
Posted in: Book Reviews
The Lady in the Van
“Lady in the Van” (2015) is the “mostly true” story of an older homeless woman who imposes herself on the well-to-do neighbourhood of Camden in London in the 1970’s. Miss Shepherd is an ‘educated woman’ with a colourful past. Once a concert pianist, then a nun, she is racked by a full blown Catholic guilt… …
Posted in: Movie Reviews, Older Women