SPOTLIGHT: Orlando-based film features filmmaker’s sister in focus on caregiving and disability

A new film that takes place in Orlando called “Take Me Home” is a deeply personal look at one family’s struggles around disability, aging, and the work of caregiving.

The narrative feature, opening at the Enzian on Oct. 16 as part of a limited nationwide release, was filmed at the actual Orlando home of writer and director Liz Sargent. It stars her real-life sister, 37-year-old Anna Sargent, who has cognitive disabilities.

The film follows Anna as she grapples with the sudden death of her mother and the absence of her sister, who’s trying to help from afar. Only Anna and her father are left in the home, and they struggle to navigate their new roles of caring for one another as he slowly succumbs to dementia.

The end of the film, though, offers a glimpse into what the world might look like if the caregiving available could be commensurate with the care that is needed.

Actors Victor Slezak and Marceline Hugot play Anna’s parents and Ali Ahn plays Emily, Anna’s fictionalized sister. But Liz Sargent said the film’s story grew from her personal experiences, so at first, she was surprised to learn that so many people could relate.

Sargent said she’s since discovered the universality of topics around caregiving, such as navigating the healthcare system, providing for disabled or aging family members while balancing careers or children, and securing sustainable care.

Steve Moreau

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Liz Sargent

“I feel it's the conversation that we don't have in this country. There's so much shame and uncertainty, and I think the families in this country do it alone,” she said. As the film screened at national and international film festivals, as well as at the White House for an event highlighting the Olmstead Act, Sargent said, “I feel like people were craving to talk about these experiences and make sense of them.”

The film grew from a short film to a feature-length project as it picked up awards and grants starting at its 2023 Sundance debut. Caring Across Generations, an advocacy group that aims to change the culture around care and its availability, came aboard to help provide Anna Sargent with the support she needed to star in the film.

Liz Sargent said there was a special acting coach for Anna, as well as an accessibility producer, to help her in her lead role. “The acting coach read through the script, described the scenes, gave her techniques, was there on set for her. We didn't force her to memorize the lines because we wanted her to just organically find it in a sort of structured improv, and then we just sort of developed the process around that.”

This work was worthwhile, Sargent said. “I'll tell you the thing that I'm most proud of is that in this film: because we made Anna the true lead, because I think we made the space for her to really own her performance and be a full, deep, complicated human, people identify with her,” said Sargent. “That feels so special to me. I see so many movies where we identify with the sibling…or the parental burden. And to me, in this situation, the empathy, and the real injustice, is toward Anna. And for people to feel that with her feels so profound and powerful.”

While the film deals unflinchingly with its themes, in its third act, the tone changes. It envisions a future where everyone can thrive. “The ending is really an offering, an invitation for imagination, and to visualize something that is totally within reach,” said Sargent.

Inherent in that invitation, she added, is a call for the audience to ask themselves why this environment for thriving does not yet exist. “There’s that saying that the disabled community is the one minority group that any of us can become a part of at any moment.”