Metadata
WORK ID: YFA 3300 (Master Record)
Title | Year | Date |
CARE | 1971 | 1971-01-01 |
Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Colour Sound: Sound Duration: 15 mins 18 secs Credits: Richard Woolley M. Gould, P. Leake, J. Mills, G. Moore, C. Shelley, P. Donnebauer, M. Heckford Subject: Rural Life |
Summary This is a documentary about C.A.R.E., a Devon organization which provides a home with work and community opportunities for the mentally disabled, made by members of the Royal College of Art School of Film and Television. |
Description
This is a documentary about C.A.R.E., a Devon organization which provides a home with work and community opportunities for the mentally disabled, made by members of the Royal College of Art School of Film and Television.
Title: Learning to Care
Title: C.A.R.E. was started four years ago, to train and look after the mentally handicapped. In the main farm-house they are socialized, and trained for work. After a year they move into cottages where they settle down as family units. Since the aim...
This is a documentary about C.A.R.E., a Devon organization which provides a home with work and community opportunities for the mentally disabled, made by members of the Royal College of Art School of Film and Television.
Title: Learning to Care
Title: C.A.R.E. was started four years ago, to train and look after the mentally handicapped. In the main farm-house they are socialized, and trained for work. After a year they move into cottages where they settle down as family units. Since the aim is security for life, the appalling pressures parents normally face are relieved.
The film depicts the lives of the residents at C.A.R.E. After being woken and washed by the members of the staff, the men work at mixing cement and building structures, farming, milking cows, and planting seedlings in the garden. The Founder and director, Peter Forbes, explains that they are actually part of the village building project, and that being thus is important. He explains that they are part of, and accepted by, the local community, and states that “the greatest handicap for the mentally handicapped is the embraassment of what they achieve themselves by their own idiosyncasies”, and that they “all admire each other”. The senior residents help to guide the newer ones.
The women sew and knit. One resident plays a small xylophone in his bedroom, with a poster of the film Camelot with pictures of Richard Harris and "the Knight’s Prayer" on his wall. Another plans to start his own business and become a tycoon. Together, as a family, the members of the community share meals, sing songs like 'Bring Back my Bonnie,' dance to the Beach Boys' 'I Get Around' and enjoy an outdoor circus performance featuring clowns. An informative voiceover plays throughout the film and is supplemented by interviews with various members of staff, including Sandy Etheridge, the handicraft tutor, Jackie Johnson, a House Mother and Craig Lynn, a warden of one of the cottages. [Note: spelling of names might not be correct]
Made by members of the Royal College of Art School of Film and Television for C.A.R.E.
Research and Direction
Michael Gould, Peter Leake, John Mills, Graham Moore, Chris Shelley,
Editor
Richard Woolley
Assistant Editor
Peter Donnebauer
Producer
M. Heckford
Context
This is a fascinating film of a progressive experiment that emerged in the 1960s and that has now been lost in the mists of time. Filmed by members of the equally progressive School of Film and Television at the Royal College of Art, it shows caring for what were then called “the mentally handicapped” in a specially formed “village” near Tiverton. Developed in 1966 by the charity CARE, it was founded by Peter Forbes, with residents actively integrated into the local community.
The School...
This is a fascinating film of a progressive experiment that emerged in the 1960s and that has now been lost in the mists of time. Filmed by members of the equally progressive School of Film and Television at the Royal College of Art, it shows caring for what were then called “the mentally handicapped” in a specially formed “village” near Tiverton. Developed in 1966 by the charity CARE, it was founded by Peter Forbes, with residents actively integrated into the local community.
The School of Film and Television at RAC faced strong competition when the National Film School was set up in the old Beaconsfield Film Studios in Buckinghamshire the year that this film was made. The editor of the film, Richard Woolley, went on to make a series of innovative films. The village was situated at Blackerton House, East Anstey, Devon. CARE (Cottage and Rural Enterprises) had a similar village in Shangton, Leicestershire. Both closed in 2008, despite petitions and residents of 30 years, as councils decided to support care in the community rather than in residential homes, and local buses stopped. Blackerton House is now an Ecocentre. CARE later became Self Unlimited and merged with HTF in 2013. |