The 8th Year of the Emergency

Eight years into Lil’s struggle with Alzheimer’s, a visit from her family inspires an ecstatic moment of clarity.

  • Maureen Towey
    Director
  • Maureen Towey
    Writer
  • Valerie Steinberg
    Producer
    Hair Wolf, Fry Day
  • Mary Beth Peil
    Key Cast
    "Lil"
    The Good Wife, Dawson's Creek
  • Linda Emond
    Key Cast
    "Nora"
    Julie and Julia; Lodge 49
  • Phillipa Soo
    Key Cast
    "Ruthie"
    Original Cast of Hamilton on Broadway
  • Jeffrey DeMunn
    Key Cast
    "Ed"
    Billions, Walking Dead
  • Marsha Stephanie Blake
    Key Cast
    "Helen"
    Orange is the New Black, Central Park Five
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    13 minutes 13 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 1, 2018
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Montclair Film Festival
    Montclair NJ
    May 12, 2019
    New Jersey Premiere
  • IFF Boston
    Boston, MA
    April 25, 2019
    World Premiere
  • Lighthouse Film Festival
    Long Beach Island
    United States
  • Snake Alley Film Festival
Director Biography - Maureen Towey

Maureen Towey is a director working across artistic mediums. For The New York Times, Towey has directed long-form content for NYT VR and served as the Senior Producer for The Daily 360. Towey has worked as a Creative Director for award-winning musicians such as Arcade Fire, Ray LaMontagne, Tune-Yards and Esperanza Spalding. As an ensemble member with Sojourn Theatre, Towey directs radical community-based arts events, such as Finding Penelope and The Islands of Milwaukee. A highlight of her live performance work was directing Black Mountain Songs, which was co-created with Bryce Dessner (of The National) and starred the Brooklyn Youth Chorus (BAM in NYC, Barbican in London). Towey has been recognized as a Fulbright scholar (South Africa), a Princess Grace fellow, and as a PBS/AOL MAKER.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

I wrote this script because the internal life of a person with Alzheimer’s is a difficult place to understand.

Over the years, I’ve worked on several large-scale Alzheimer’s related projects. For The Penelope Project, we collaborated with the memory wing of a retirement community and incorporated their residents into a performance of The Odyssey. This project had me working closely with Alzheimer’s patients as well as their families, doctors and caretakers. We received national attention for our work: it inspired a documentary, a book, and my art partner, Anne Basting, received a MacArthur genius award for her contribution. The project was considered very successful, but I felt I had a lot more to explore about aging and memory. The reality of a person living with Alzheimer’s continued to haunt me as a storyteller.

When I encountered Elinor Fuchs’ memoir, Making an Exit, a passage from the book stuck with me. It was during a time when Lil, Elinor’s mother, was spinning out and her Alzheimer’s related behavior was becoming more wild and erratic. As a coping mechanism, Elinor started recording her conversations with Lil. The main speech in the short film is all based directly on the words that spilled out of Lil on one happy day. When I first approached the text, it felt like a Samuel Beckett play because the characters words were nonsensical, yet had a very clear intention. Luckily, I was able to find an world-class actress, Mary Beth Peil, who took great joy in finding the thread of this language.

The extraordinary team on this project came together, not only because of the script, but also because of their personal experiences with Alzheimer’s. Our editor, Sarah Broshar (aka Spielberg’s co-editor, editing immense films like The Post and Ready Player One) has a grandfather with Alzheimer’s. Phillipa Soo, who starred in the original cast of Hamilton and plays our granddaughter, Ruthie — her grandfather has Alzheimer’s and she brought stories that seeped into the heart of the film.

What we aimed for was to present an individual’s experience of Alzheimer’s that is many things at once: vibrant, exhausting, loving, sad, hopeful and funny. We hope you enjoy the film.