Please join me for a very special episode celebrating the release of the beautiful new documentary, It’s Not A Burden: The Humor and Heartache of Raising Elderly Parents in The Locher Room.

Joining the conversation are Emmy-nominated filmmaker Michelle Boyaner (Writer / Director), Executive Producer Aaron Lustig who played Dr. Tim Reid on The Young and the Restless along with two of the film’s subjects Maxine Lapidus and Brother Ken Curley. In the film, Maxine’s mother Esther is a larger-than-life entertainer who still has a lot of performing up her sleeve and her daughters Maxine & Sally do everything they can to make sure she has an audience. Brother Ken cared for his mother, but he also cared for a group of retired brothers at the Holy Family Community. Brother Ken also performed with Maxine’s mother Esther and has known their family for decades.

Rounding out the show will be pop-folk singer Danielle Ate The Sandwich who will perform one of the featured songs from the film.

ABOUT THE FILM:

Emmy-nominated filmmaker Michelle Boyaner (HBO’s Packed in a Trunk) shares her complex and devastatingly tender journey caring for her long-divorced aging parents– her mother Elaine, who abandoned the family and left then 19-year-old Michelle to help raise her 5 younger siblings and is now faced with dementia, and her father Morris, once a brilliant Aerospace Engineer and now a hoarder unable to navigate his own world. A diverse mix of other families are woven in, each with their own unique challenges. Among them, you’ll meet Esther, an entertainer whose daughters bring love and laughter to her last act, and Mike, who helps his mother Florence while raising teenagers as a single father. With humor and heart, the film explores not only the frustrations and fears, but also the transformative bonds that happen when familial roles are reversed. Is it a burden or a blessing? Maybe a little of both.

Original Airdate: 6/4/2021