Home / Arts and Entertainment / The Lantern: Where Real Care Meets Artificial Calm
The Lantern: Where Real Care Meets Artificial Calm
13 Apr
Summary
- Retirement home uses painted skies and nature sounds for calm.
- Staff, primarily Black women, provide vital invisible labor.
- Film contrasts resident lives with caregiver's dual roles.
In Ohio's Chagrin Valley, The Lantern retirement home creates an artificial calm with painted skies and nature sounds. Residents experience a resigned harmony, sometimes marked by bewilderment and moments of crisis.
The film by Nathalie Berger contrasts the residents with the care staff, who are largely Black women. It subtly uncovers the racial and socioeconomic hierarchies present.
Berger's observational documentary emphasizes the crucial, often invisible labor performed by the staff. This includes physical and emotional support for residents, and extending to their own families at home. The Lantern becomes a microcosm of American life, juxtaposing the realities of labor and rest through different viewpoints.
