Filmmaker Statement

Floppies is inspired by the real relationship that I had with my father, who lived with frontotemporal dementia for several years before his death in 2017 at age 59. This is something we actually did together. There have been so many stories about death and grieving, but I felt that not many depict the Long Grieving - anticipation, dread, stiltedness, anxiety, confusion, regret - like what I had experienced for years anticipating my father's inevitable death. I wanted to depict the prolonged battle against apathy that can occur when a loved one is diagnosed with a terminal illness, as well as the struggles to suppress one's trauma and experience joy in the minutia of life that can come with that. My approach was to depict little moments of happiness in a big way, and to portray those living with dementia with humanity and jubilation.