THE BUBBLE

A feature documentary by Valerie Blankenbyl
Documentary  |  92 min |  CH, AUT  |  2021
A co-produciton with Catpics

SYNOPSIS

Welcome to Florida’s Friendliest Hometown. The Bubble explores senior citizen life within The Villages, America’s largest retirement community; a 32-square mile, sun-drenched, beautifully maintained, gated paradise standing in heartland Florida. Residence to over 150,000 retirees, The Villages have 96 recreation centres, 54 golf courses, 70 swimming pools, 3 old-fashioned town squares, and some 3000 social clubs. Alongside numerous cinemas, restaurants, entertainment venues, shopping complexes, a fire department, an acute care hospital, a newspaper, a television network, and a Fox News-affiliated, 24-hour radio station.

Community residents, leisurely driving customised golf carts across the green fairways and around the pleasant yet identical, small-town American neighbourhoods, are provided with every convenience to enjoy the twilight hours of their lives. And with every reason never to leave. Retired life beneath the year-round Floridian sunshine however, is not perhaps as idyllic, or as welcomed, as many ageing Villagers may imagine.

The Bubble intimately examines the exclusive retirement experiences, beliefs and mindsets of six memorable Villages residents; Toni and Roger, Jeanie and John, Terry and Toni. Interweaving these satisfied retiree existences with the anxieties of several residents from surrounding counties, the documentary reveals how those beyond the community’s sealed gateways are being profoundly displaced by The Villages’ endless desire for land, water, and regional control.

Florida’s Friendliest Hometown, by welcoming senior citizens at the expense of nearby county residents, illustrates many of the nation’s most combative dialogues regarding class imbalance, racial inequality, healthcare privatisation, political affiliation, state responsibility, and civic obligation. The Bubble offers viewers an engaging, provocative yet compassionate contemplation of American ways of life, ageing, and death.

DISTRIBUTION

AUSTRIA
FILMLADEN FILMVERLEIH

WORLD SALES
DECKERT DISTRIBUTION

PRESS RELATIONS

Golden Girls Film
Seidengasse 15/20, 1070 Wien
office@goldengirls.at

FOLLOW
FESTIVALS

ZagrebDox International Documentary Film Festival 2022

International Architecture Film Festival Barcelona 2022

Antenna Documentary Film Festival Sydney 2022

Solothurner Filmtage 2022

Tournai Ramdam Festival 2022

Vision du Réel, Nyon 2021

Thessaloniki Film Festival 2021

 DOC NYC 2021

Diagonale’21

Festival dei Popoli 2021

Another Way Film Festival 2021

Architecture Film Festival 2021

Astra Film Festival 2021

 

AWARDS

ZAGREBDOX INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL 2022 FIPRESCI AWARD

INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE FILM FESTIVAL BARCELONA 2022  BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

QUOTES

"There is justified hope that "The Bubble" by Valerie Blankenbyl is likely to trigger a broad discussion among us: about the personal shaping of old age, about social concepts of old age, about segregation or integration, about the roles of the generations - and finally the ideologies that are promoted or prevented by the decisions made."                               -Der andere Film

"The Bubble shows a feel-good enclave, too big, too powerful to simply get rid of. A dearly bought land of milk and honey. Or as the sign at the entrance to the town says: "Florida's Friendliest Hometown!"               -Diagonale'21

INFO

RUNNING TIME – 92 minutes
ORIGINAL LANGUAGES – English
SUBTITLES – German, French, English
LOCATIONS – Florida, USA
SCREENING FORMAT – DCP
SOUND FORMAT – Stereo
ASPECT RATIO – 2.39:1
PICTURES/SEC – 24

CREW

DIRECTOR & SCREEN WRITER       
Valerie Blankenbyl

CINEMATOGRAPHY                    
Joe Berger

SOUND RECORDIST           
Benoît Barraud

EDITING                                          
Nela Märki

SOUNDDESIGN           
Jaques Kieffer

SCORE                                  
Adam Lukas

GRAPHIC DESIGN                                
Sandra Reichel

PRODUCERS                             
Dario Schoch, Rajko Jazbec

CO-PRODUCERS     
Karin C. Berger, Arash T. Riahi

CAST

Toni & Roger Akers
Jeanie & John Ferguson
Lauren Ritchie
Terry Marksberry
Linda Vernon
Toni Hyde
Bill Pownall
Mae Katherine Lee

PARTNERS

Federal Office for Culture Switzerland, Zurich Film Foundation, Austrian Filminstitute, Film Industry Support Switzerland, Film Industry Support Austria, Culture Fund Suissimage, UBS Culture Fund as well as in co-operation with SRF Swiss Radio & Television and ORF Film/Fernseh-Abkommen.

GOLDEN GIRLS FILMPRODUKTION & FILMSERVICES GMBH

GOLDEN GIRLS FILMPRODUKTION & FILMSERVICES GMBH

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Copyright © 2019 Golden Girls Filmproduktion & Filmservices GmbH. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2019 Golden Girls Filmproduktion & Filmservices GmbH. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2019 Golden Girls Filmproduktion & Filmservices GmbH. All rights reserved.