Please join us for the first public screening of Set for Life by the Massachusetts Independent Film Festival!

9:55 p.m., Tuesday, September 25

Somerville Theatre, Somerville, Mass.

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Set for Life is also an official selection of Louisville’s International Film Festival, Oct. 4 to 7, in Louisville, Ky.!

More about our documentary in my September StayThirsty column:

I thought I was set for life is the most common phrase I heard interviewing older Americans who lost their jobs as a result of the Great Recession.  Over their careers, they had received promotions, praise and bonuses from companies such as AT&T, Panasonic, Pfizer or Weirton Steel.  Then, one day, sometime after the economic downturn began in 2007, they were let go or downsized or told they were no longer needed and ushered out the door of the company where they had worked for more than 20 years.  They were shocked.

 

They had children who depended on them, elderly parents who needed their support, bills and mortgages to pay.  Compounding the impact of sudden unemployment, they found that their homes were underwater and their hard-earned savings were plummeting in value as housing and the financial markets tumbled downward.  One more blow — they also lost their health insurance when they lost their jobs.  They were stunned.

 

They are Baby Boomers and they are my peers, born during the era of general economic prosperity and optimism in the years between 1946 and 1964.   They were not prepared to find their American Dream unraveling as they approached the end of their working lives.

Please click here to read more.