PROJECT SLATED FOR SPRING 2025 PREMIERE ON
PBS
Nationwide Well Beings Campaign
from WETA Leverages Power of Public Media, Engagement
Partners, and Extended Digital Series to Highlight
Caregiving Challenges and Advances
"There are only four kinds of people in the
world. Those who have been caregivers. Those who are
currently caregivers. Those who will be caregivers, and those who
will need the caregiver." — Rosalynn Carter, Former First Lady of
the United States
WASHINGTON, May 8, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- WETA Washington,
D.C. today announced that production is underway on
Caregiving, a two-hour documentary by executive producer
Bradley Cooper. Sharon Percy Rockefeller, president and Chief
Executive Officer of public media station WETA, a producer on the
project, shared that the film will feature a diverse group of
caregivers sharing their personal stories of challenge and triumph
and is slated to premiere on PBS in Spring 2025.
In the U.S., more than 53 million family caregivers are unpaid,
providing 34 billion hours of care annually, amounting to an
estimated $67 billion in personal
lost earnings.1 As caregiving in America faces the twin
pressures of an aging baby boomer generation and rising life
expectancy, the United States'
long-term care system threatens to tip into crisis. The film will
personalize this urgent national issue through stories from
caregivers and interviews with experts as they fight to give
caregivers the security and support they provide for so many
others. The project also includes a robust national engagement
campaign.
The Caregiving sizzle reel is available HERE.
Rockefeller's announcement about the project funder and partners is
HERE.
Well Beings, WETA's award-winning multiplatform campaign
addressing various health needs in America, will present
Caregiving as its next feature film. A production of
Lea Pictures and WETA Washington,
D.C., in association with Ark media, Caregiving will
reveal the vital impact of the caregiver's role in the family, the
workplace, and the country's economy.
The series will examine caregiving from multiple perspectives:
the creation and evolution of the care system; the social dynamics
that shape our approach to caregiving today and the future
possibilities; the lives of caregivers and their relationships with
those in their care; the interpersonal and economic pressures faced
by caregivers; and the broader societal context in which caregiving
operates on the margins, yet affects everyone.
The caregiving experience is personal for Cooper, who was a
caregiver for his late father, Charles J.
Cooper, during his battle with lung cancer. Cooper's
dedication to elevating portrayals of caregiving across film and
television inspired the Caregiving documentary — Cooper's
first project produced for PBS.
"When my father was diagnosed with cancer, that was a wake-up
call for me, one that really opened my eyes to the world of
caregiving," remarked Bradley
Cooper, actor, producer, director, and caregiver. "Everyone
will end up caring for a loved one at some point in their life. The
level of loneliness can overcome an individual going through this –
it's overwhelming. Raising this conversation on a national level
will help, and together, I believe we can make a difference. I'm
extremely proud to produce this documentary. Together, we can help
raise the banner for caregivers."
Rockefeller noted, "The act of giving and receiving care touches
the lives of every American. Caregiving underscores the
challenging and fulfilling work of individuals who are the bedrock
of the nation's long-term care system. The selfless act of
caregiving is a most worthy cause to activate the power of public
media to connect and galvanize providers and supporters to join
forces and bring attention to the urgent support system needed to
protect this often-overlooked population."
"Caregiving is one of the most consequential issues affecting
families today and, like most Americans, many of us on the
production team at Ark media have been directly impacted, each in
our own way. We are so proud to be working on this project and
giving voice to the caregivers whose lives, work and struggles have
for too long gone unrecognized," commented Chris Durrance, Caregiving's
director.
The project will include a national outreach, engagement,
education and digital campaign to help audiences better understand
the issues caregivers face and build awareness for programs
available in their communities. This effort will build a resource
network between local PBS stations, community organizations,
national sponsors, and partners, including the Rosalynn Carter
Institute for Caregivers, Milken Institute Center for the Future of
Aging, Grantmakers In Aging, Global Coalition on Aging, and
National Alliance for Caregiving to immerse audiences into the
world of caregiving and build communities to sustain caregivers
during an unprecedented moment in which there is an opportunity to
transform our country's caregiving system into one that works for
us all.
Generous underwriters committed to greater education about
health and wellness have made this ambitious project possible.
Support for Caregiving is made possible by Otsuka America
Pharmaceutical Inc.; Evelyn Y. Davis Foundation; Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation; Care.com; and
the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Support for the engagement
and outreach for Caregiving is made possible by the John A.
Hartford Foundation.
Documentary Profiles the Experiences of Caregivers and
Perspectives of Advocates
The community of available caregivers, already insufficient,
threatens to remain stagnant due to a lack of financial support and
resources. The median annual pay for a professional caregiver is
less than $24,000, and almost half of
professional caregivers rely on public assistance.2 The
series will intimately explore the lived experiences of families
and professional caregivers, including people such as Matt, a young
father who became both his wife and son's primary caregiver
overnight after his wife was treated for a debilitating stroke, and
cancer. In her late 20s, Jessica put a successful career on pause
when her mother, herself a successful businesswoman, received an
Alzheimer's diagnosis. Zulma, a home health aide, faces a
grueling three-hour commute to work three night shifts in a row for
a client with multiple sclerosis.
Weaving in history and context, the series will follow
people at the forefront of the caregiving movement. Ai-jen Poo —
the preeminent American voice on caregiving, and the president of
the National Domestic Workers Alliance and director of Caring
Across Generations — will share the broad-based social and
political effort it takes to create caregiving policy, protections
and to build a "culture of care."
Caregiving Project Extends Impact as Newest
Initiative from Well Beings Campaign
The Caregiving launch will include a national and local
audience engagement campaign to explore how caregiving impacts
everyone in America. The engagement campaign will develop
relationships with a large network of committed partners and PBS
member stations to produce in-person and virtual engagement events
and provide resource guides, among other resources, tailored to the
specific needs of their unique communities.
Starting in Fall 2024, the multiplatform online strategy will
launch with a preview of Caregiving and provide additional
film details and video content on the Well Beings digital platform,
including the website and social media accounts. The campaign will
feature original short-form content and an interactive digital
series focused on family caregivers.
Since the launch of Well Beings in May
2020, the campaign has featured impactful local and national
conversations through engagement events; produced original
digital-first content ranging from feature-length and short-form
documentaries to animated explainer shorts; and created signature
broadcast content, including Ken Burns Presents Hiding in
Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness A film by Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers. Components of the
Well Beings campaign have reached millions of Americans through
over 1.9 billion media impressions from major media outlets; 125
million impressions using #WellBeings; and the Well Beings Tour of
virtual events produced in 30 public media markets, generating an
audience of more than 2 million virtual viewers.
Well Beings is a multiplatform, multi-year campaign from public
media to address the critical health needs in America through
original broadcast and digital content, engagement campaigns, and
impactful local events. Well Beings was created by WETA
Washington, D.C., the flagship
public media station in the nation's capital, and brings together
partners from across the country, including youth with experience
of mental health challenges, families, caregivers, educators,
medical and mental health professionals, social service agencies,
private foundations, filmmakers, corporations and media sponsors,
to create awareness and resources for better health and well-being.
The public can join the conversation by using #WellBeings, visiting
WellBeings.org, or following @WellBeingsOrg on Instagram, Facebook,
or X.
Caregiving Film Production
Team
Caregiving is a production of Lea Pictures
and WETA Washington, D.C., in
association with Ark media. Chris
Durrance serves as Director for Ark media. Barak Goodman is Series Producer, Chris Durrance is Senior Producer and
Ruth Fertig is Producer for Ark
media. Executive Producers for Lea Pictures are Bradley Cooper and Weston Middleton. Executive Producers for WETA
are John F. Wilson and Tom Chiodo. Producer for WETA is Kate Kelly. Production is managed for WETA by
Jim Corbley.
ABOUT LEA PICTURES
Bradley Cooper created Lea Pictures in 2020 to
create stories that inspire, motivate, and resonate as a producer,
writer, actor and director. Building off the critical and
financial success of his producorial work on the Oscar-nominated
films Nightmare Alley, A Star Is Born, American
Sniper and Joker, Lea Pictures was formed to develop and
produce commercially entertaining and transformational feature
films, television, documentary films and digital content. Cooper's
first film under Lea Pictures was Maestro, which he
co-wrote, produced, directed, and starred in. Maestro
was nominated for seven Oscars and the film was released by Netflix
in December 2023. Cooper is
currently co-writing, producing and will direct Is This Thing
On? for Searchlight Pictures. The film will star Will Arnett and will go into production this
fall. Cooper is a 12-time Oscar nominee whose passion for unique
and personal storytelling has made him one of the most influential
producers at this time. Additional projects under the Lea Pictures
banner include Warner Bros' Bullitt with Steven Spielberg, Hyperion, also with
Warner Bros' and Graham King, the
History Channel's miniseries FDR, and the podcasts The
Good Stuff and Finally! A Show currently on
iHeartMedia. Lea Pictures executives include Weston Middleton, who heads up the film
division, Kristen Barnett in
television and Anneliese Barron in
social impact.
ABOUT WETA
WETA is the leading public broadcaster in
the nation's capital, serving Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia with educational
initiatives and with high-quality programming on television, radio,
and digital. WETA Washington,
D.C., is the second-largest producing station for public
television, with news and public affairs programs including PBS
NewsHour, PBS News Weekend, and Washington Week
with The Atlantic; films by Ken
Burns and Florentine Films, such as The American
Buffalo and the forthcoming Leonardo da Vinci; series and documentaries
by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.,
including Finding Your Roots with Henry
Louis Gates, Jr. and GOSPEL; performance specials
including National Memorial Day Concert and A Capitol
Fourth; and health content from Well Beings, a multiplatform
campaign. More information on WETA and its programs and services
are available at weta.org.
Visit facebook.com/wetatvfm on Facebook.
ABOUT ARK MEDIA
Ark media is one of the most prolific
and honored non-fiction production companies in America, with over
25 years of experience producing premium documentary series that
speak to a wide array of social, historical and political themes.
Founded in 1996 by filmmakers Barak
Goodman and Rachel Dretzin
and joined by fellow partner and filmmaker John Maggio in 2003, Ark produces both feature
documentaries, and over 30 hours of television/streaming content a
year for such outlets as PBS, Participant, HBO, Netflix, MSNBC, and
more. Ark's films have premiered at Sundance, Tribeca, DocNYC, and
other major film festivals, the company's productions have been
honored with five Emmy Awards, an Academy Award nomination, three
DuPont Columbia batons, three George H. Foster Peabody Awards,
among many other awards and accolades.
Contacts:
Lameka Lucas, WETA /
llucas@weta.org
For additional up-to-date information on this and other WETA
productions, visit Pressroom | WETA.
1 Statistics sourced from American Association of
Retired People (AARP) and the National Alliance for Caregiving
(NAC). Caregiving in the United
States in 2020 (June 18,
2020) https://www.aarp.org/pri/topics/ltss/family-caregiving/caregiving-in-the-united-states/
and AARP. Valuing the Invaluable 2023 Update: Strengthening
Supports for Family Caregivers (March 8,
2023)
https://www.aarp.org/pri/topics/ltss/family-caregiving/valuing-the-invaluable-2015-update/
2 IPUMS; Ruggles, Steven, Sarah
Flood, Ronald Goeken, Megan
Schoulweiler, and Matthew Sobek.
Smerican Community Survey, 2021 (Septtember 11,
2023) https://www.phinational.org/resource/direct-care-workers-in-the-united-states-key-facts-2023/
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SOURCE WETA Washington,
D.C.