Special Topics
"Aging Out: What Happens When You've Grown Up in Foster Care and Suddenly You're on Your Own?"
About the Film
• Watch the "Aging Out" documentary on the Web.
Streaming video in Windows Media Player (WMV, 18.5MB) >>
• Watch video in which former foster youth talk about their experience aging out of the Florida foster care system.
Streaming video in Windows Media Player (WMV, 15.5MB) >>AGING OUT was created by award-winning producers and directors Roger Weisberg and Vanessa Roth, with support from the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative. AGING OUT is a production of Public Policy Productions for Thirteen/WNET New York. It is expected to be broadcast on PBS nationwide in spring 2005.
The film follows young people as they become parents, battle drug addiction, face homelessness, and even end up in jail. Despite their struggles, the film also shows these young people using the resiliency they developed during their years "in the system" to overcome their challenges. It also forces us to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the public systems that serve these youth, as well as the roles that private citizens and organizations can play.
In AGING OUT, you will meet three such young adults:
In Los Angeles, David Griffin looks back on a life in more than 20 foster care, mental health, and juvenile justice facilities. Abandoned by his mother when he was just six weeks old, David leaves foster care for the streets, goes on a self-destructive drug and crime binge, copes with homelessness and incarceration, argues with his former foster parents, and eventually leaves Los Angeles for Seattle with hopes of becoming a fisherman in Alaska.
Risa Bejarano managed to become the first member of her family to advance past the tenth grade, despite shuttling between a dozen different Los Angeles foster homes after being abused and molested as a child. The cameras record Risa as she attends her high school prom and graduates with several scholarships, but they also capture her quiet battle with drug addiction and a devastating emotional breakdown during her freshman year at the University of California at Santa Barbara. When we last see her, Risa is enrolled in a community college.
Daniella Anderson reported her abusive father to the authorities when she was fifteen, and spent the next five years in ten different group homes in New York City. As she leaves the foster care system, she juggles her college career with the hard reality of living with her boyfriend, raising her newborn child, paying rent, and putting enough food on the table.
About the Filmmakers
>> Read about the AGING OUT filmmakers.
Directors' Statements
>> Read what AGING OUT writer, producer, and director Roger Weisberg has to say about the film.
>> Read what AGING OUT co-producer/co-director Vanessa Roth has to say about the film.
Order a Copy of the Film
>> To order a copy of the film, access contact information for the film's distributors.
