Aging Out
by Maria Finitzo, Roger Weisberg, Vanessa Roth
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Jay O. SandersDirector: Maria Finitzo, Roger Weisberg, Vanessa Roth
Brand: New Video
Cinematographer: Arthur Yee
Cinematographer: Gordon Quinn
Cinematographer: Jim Morrissette
Cinematographer: John Hazard
Cinematographer: Sarah Levy
Cinematographer: Shana Hagan
Cinematographer: Slawomir Grunberg
Producer: Maria Finitzo
Producer: Roger Weisberg
Writer: Roger Weisberg
Producer: Vanessa Roth
Producer: Deborah Clancy
Producer: Hilary Klotz
Producer: Jessie Pepper
Producer: Joanna Friedman
Producer: Stephen Segaller
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-06-27
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Docurama
Product features:
- Artfully co-directed by award-wining filmmakers Roger Weisberg and Vanessa Roth, "Aging Out" chronicles the daunting obstacles that three foster children encounter as they "age out" of the system and are suddenly on their own for the first time. Following them as they become parents, battle drug addiction, and even end up in jail, Weisberg and Roth show how three adolescents use the tenacity they
Movie Reviews of Aging Out
Movie Review: outstanding, poignant documentary
Summary: 5 Stars
Aging Out is a powerful, well made documentary that showcases just how poorly foster care children are prepared for real life when they "age out" of the foster care system between the ages of eighteen to twenty-one. While foster parents and legal guardians try their best, I was nevertheless struck by the lack of adequate professional counseling for these young people to ensure that they can have a happy, productive life after leaving the foster care system. Life isn't easy especially for children in foster care; and that becomes abundantly clear as this film progresses. Often foster care children bounce from home to home, or from treatment program to treatment program, sometimes with so little emotional attachment to their "families" or guardians that they are ill prepared to cope with life and take care of themselves properly. In addition, the cinematography is terrific and the young people we meet have their stories presented in touching, well thought out ways that make it easy for me to empathize with them all; I identified the most with Risa but the stories of David and Daniella and her boyfriend touched me also.
For David, it's all about getting out of the system and being a man as soon as possible; but his foster care guardian in a type of group home tries hard to make David realize that he's still got some growing to do. David was taken from his mother when he was roughly one year old because his mother was schizophrenic and apparently either sleeping on the streets or getting close to it; with this background David stands a high chance of becoming seriously mentally ill himself--severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia are usually inherited. David also reaches out to a foster care family who took good care of him for quite a while in the past; but eventually even they have serious trouble with David as he disappears for days on end and gets into trouble with the law. Will David learn that he has to work to improve himself--and can the foster care system as it exists ever truly help him accomplish this?
Daniella can't wait to get out of the system, either. Blessed with a fiercely independent spirit even at the tender age of twenty, she wants to get out of the system and raise her newborn child with her boyfriend, the child's father. Daniella was taken from her parents because her father was physically abusive and the home environment was less than nurturing, to say the least; Daniella's mother was not able to prevent her father from abusing Daniella even more. Will Daniella and her boyfriend, who is also in the foster care system, be able to get out of the system a few months early to raise their son as they please in their own home--and what happens to them after that? Watch and find out.
Risa, the young woman with whom I sympathized the most, had a most abusive father and her family was so scattered and fragmented that she's not even sure how many siblings she actually has. We see Risa struggle to save enough money for college; she will be the first in her family to graduate high school and her foster mother is proud of her. But when drugs enter Risa's life, especially when she's away at college and out of the foster care system, how will Risa cope--and still earn enough good grades to keep her scholarships? What happens to her will move you.
In addition, we get two extras about two more people aging out of the foster care system; and I would agree with the reviewer who writes that the most likely reason we don't see their cases in the main portion of the film is that the filmmakers didn't have enough time to get to know them.
Overall, Aging Out is a sobering, no punches pulled documentary that leaves you with quite an emotional impact; you won't forget this film and the stories of these young people anytime soon. I highly recommend this film for people interested in the foster care system and the children who are in foster care.
Summary of Aging Out
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