SOC's Myers Is Making Media That Matters
When School of Communication professor Claudia Myers got a call from Elizabeth Stephen, the executive producer of Lifetime’s new feature film, "The Bad Guardian," asking if she would join the project as a director, she didn’t hesitate.
“[Stephen] said she had been researching this film for several years and this was something that was really important to her, she sent me the script and I responded to it,” said Myers. “At SOC, we like to say we make media that matters. And this felt like a story that mattered.”
The film, which premieres Saturday, May 18, at 8 p.m. ET and will be available for streaming the following day, tells the story of Leigh (Melissa Joan Hart) a working-class woman whose father, Jason (Eric Pierpoint), falls and is taken to the ER while she is on vacation with her family and can’t be reached. Janet (La La Anthony) is appointed as a guardian to make health decisions for him because Jason can't make a decision himself in that moment.
As the film unfolds, Janet cuts off contact between Leigh and her father, makes decisions that lead to a deterioration in his health, and puts him into a long-term care facility. She then auctions off his home and other belongings, supposedly to pay for his care. All the while, Leigh is fighting to free her father from the guardianship and bring him home. This may sound unbelievable, but the movie is a composite of real things that happened to real people.
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“I did a lot of research,” said Myers, “I think the story of the film was an awakening for me. The idea of somebody being incapacitated can be temporary, or worse, subjective. And when youconsider the growing business of private guardianships, the financial incentives driving for-profit care, and the amount of money that's at stake, it's a system that can easily be exploited.” Lifetime has identified resources for viewers who may be impacted by guardianships or related issues.
The actual filmmaking was done at a sprint. It was three weeks of pre-production, three weeks of shooting in West Virginia, and three weeks of editing. Myers had been able to take a leave of absence from teaching once she had found colleagues to cover her classes and recruited her graduate assistant, Antonio Roche, to assist with the prep and editing. "It's my first year in the MFA program at AU, and I didn't think that I'd get the experience of working on a feature film already," said Roche. "Claudia specifically fought for me to be credited on the project. She respected me enough to give me important tasks, and went to bat for me when it mattered." As an aspiring screenwriter, Roche is particularly proud that some of his notes about the script, which he read and re-read several times, were adopted for the final film.
As she waits for the premiere this weekend, Myers is thrilled that she was able to have had the opportunity to be a part of this impactful film. “I'm really pleased with the film and I'm proud of it.” Apart from the goal of shedding light on the deeply concerning subject matter of elder abuse and victimization, Myers said, “What I loved about the story is it's about a girl who gets to rescue her dad. You know, I feel like fathers do a lot of rescuing of their daughters, but you don't so often see a daughter do the rescuing.”
Faculty
The Filmmaker
Watch as Claudia Myers shares her passion for storytelling through film.