The Next Greatest Generation
Cheer, ballet, Friday night lights. Deryn lives in the “heart of America.” Only when she gets home, she puts on Dad’s legs, like when she was eight. “I’m always with him,” Deryn realizes college will change that. The tight family of four will be missing her.
In the new documentary, Sky Blossom, journalist Richard Lui pays tribute to U.S. families caring for injured and disabled military veterans
Ask Richard Lui why he decided to film a documentary about the lives of young people caring for disabled veteran family members, and the MSNBC/NBC news anchor’s answer may surprise you.
Sky Blossom: Diaries of the Next Greatest Generation was not planned. Instead, he said, the film grew out of his own, deeply personal experience of caring for his father, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease.
“I didn’t start caring for him thinking that it would inspire me to do a movie,” Lui said. “But as we turn these different corners (in life) you stick your head around and say, ‘Oh, look at that!’”
What audiences will see in Richard Lui’s Sky Blossom is an honest and insightful look into the lives of family members who provide home care for disabled US veterans.
“He was too shy to give me his number,” Rocio laughs. They wrote letters during deployment, lucky to marry when he came home. Then Brian’s hair and skin fell away. Rhianna is shy too. But not. She fights bullies for herself and for Dad.
“These frontline caregivers, frontline heroes are not only helping their military families,” Lui explained. “They’re also growing up. They’re blossoming.”
The phrase “sky blossoms,” refers to paratroopers who, in wartime, rushed into combat zones to care for wounded warriors. In this documentary, audiences get an intimate look at today’s young “sky blossoms.” They’re now providing a lifeline of compassion and care for veterans in failing health,— double amputees, cancer survivors and some with diabetes or dementia.
“What amazing people they are!” Lui said.
Even though the film tells stories of military heroism and sacrifice, the focus in Sky Blossoms is on the dedication of family caregivers. “Sometimes with these ideas of children caring for parents or grandparents, (we say) ah, that doesn’t happen. Yes, it does. And it happens in ways that we don’t see,” Lui said.
The documentary chronicles the highs and lows that mark the daily existence of the young caregivers as they fix meals, help put on prosthetic legs, even as they toil at full-time jobs and often miss out on the carefree youth enjoyed by their peers.
Richard Lui
Lui is the film’s director and producer. But these titles don’t fully describe his Sky Blossom journey, which is now four years in the making.
Lui is a trailblazer among Asian American journalists. He’s a member of the Asian American Journalist Association and a mentor to young reporters. And he's a lifetime member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists “We’re all different, but we are all the same. You don’t have to be one or the other,” Lui observed.
Lui points to his membership in different organizations as a definition for a word that emerges often in his own conversations about journalism: inclusion.
It was this spirit of inclusion that encouraged him to go to great lengths to ensure that the documentary told a complete American story. “It’s not like I had to forego—compromise. There are lots of stories out there.”
Families profiled in the film are ethnically diverse and reside in various geographical regions: the Allens from Tennessee identify as Native American; the Alvarados, are Latino and live in California; the Griers of Pennsylvania are African American; the Kapanuis are Native Hawaiians; and the Ploofs are European-Americans from Michigan.
“They’re all American families. I think we’ll see the beauty of the core family in all these different backgrounds,” Lui said.
A diverse cast of supporters
Inclusion on the big screen extends to work on the film behind the scenes. Lui made sure that Sky Blossom showcased a diverse creative team. “Our goal as people of color is to show how we’re different and special, but also how we’re the same,” Lui asserted. Talk show host and military veteran Montel Williams is an executive producer, while Eliana Alvarez Martinez directs the photography. Documentarian Jean Tsien also shared her expertise.
The film was produced in partnership with the Asian American Journalists Association, the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, the AARP and the Alzheimer’s Association, among a number of supporters that includes actor Tom Hanks and NBC Today Show anchor Savannah Guthrie.
Sky Blossom’s world premiere is scheduled for Veterans’ Day 2020, during National Family Caregivers Month. It’s also scheduled to show digitally and in theaters, for free, in all 50 states.
Variety has named the film as a top Oscar contender in the category of Best Documentary Feature. It is scheduled for global screenings in 2021.
Check out this site For information about screenings.
A drive-in premiere
Sky Blossom makes history on Veterans Day, becoming the first film to be presented at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. as a drive-in experience, in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
On the eve of the premiere, Richard Lui took some time to talk about his very personal Sky Blossom journey.
His answers here are edited for clarity and space.
palabra: Why did you choose to focus on family members instead of those who need caregiving?
Richard Lui: The goal of the film was to show that there are a lot of amazing young care heroes that are doing just great things. We overlook them. (But) they’re there. They are part of family units and they’re helping the family member that is in need.
palabra.: What surprised you during the filming of the documentary?
Jenna often buys meals for the homeless she sees, because she remembers being homeless for almost two years. Today, when not working 40 hours at Panera, she cares for her ailing father and teen sister. “A daughter, Mom, and sister all in one,” Jenna is also trying to take college classes.
Richard: What surprised me was (the caregivers’) honesty and their frankness. That really humbled me, but it also proved how special they are. Their transparency was so heartening. You know when you get that as experienced journalists, we know we have to take care of it. That’s why I feel so protective of their stories.
palabra.: Tell us about the Alvarado family.
Richard: Theirs is a love story. It is a family that despite going through great difficulty with Brain, the father, they endure and continue to laugh and cry and love each other. Nobody in that family got into it thinking that this was going to be the outcome—that Brian would go to serve America as a US Marine—make his wife, Rocio proud, and then come back and then get a couple of different cancers-one that affects his skin as it peeled away—and then throat cancer. He has to eat through a stomach tube now. Rihanna is 11-years-old and it’s Rihanna who protects them when they go out, who says to other kids, ‘Don’t look at him that way. Turn around.’ She forthrightly knows how to stand up for her father.
palabra.: As you interviewed these individuals, did you see a little of yourself in them?
Rob Jr.’s full-time job is caring for his dad, a football Civil Rights icon. Junior’s daughter sees how his caregiving has taken a cost, his divorce from her Mom just finalized. The Grier family doesn’t falter--each having cared for different family members almost their entire lives.
Richard: Absolutely; 100 percent. I think that was part of our ability to go places that may not have been accessible. I’m as open as I can be talking about the difficulties I’ve had. The days that you’re down and the days that you’re up, and I think that being honest with yourself about who you are takes a long time.
palabra.: What thought went into ensuring diversity of the subjects?
Richard: I purposely wanted to select that fabric of America, because that is what we are. That is our strength, our beauty, our amazement. Four years ago when I set out, that was clearly one of my drives. Now I didn’t know that today we would be having a racial pandemic—we would be debating what it means to be people of color. But I think the film arrived at the right time.
palabra.: Speaking of diversity, your crew is greatly diverse.
Richard: I knew that I could very easily find the talent that represented the problem of “Me Too,” in the media. Of all the dollars we raised, 94-percent of it has gone to diverse contractors. The film crew is a 100-percent female. Our director of photography is Latina/Hispanic. Our composer is a female. Our orchestra was 85-percent diverse. Our conductor is an acclaimed conductor, also happens to be African American. So we can do this, and I wanted to do it in a way that represented an example that you can get to the end of this thing without thinking you’re compromising or off-setting.
palabra.: Do you have any suggestions for journalists who want to create a successful documentary?
Richard: I am a huge fan of our journalism organizations. AAJA has been the perfect partner for this. They are the fiscal sponsor. The first idea that I would offer is to work with the strength of journalistic associations. Go to your community. There are a lot of great people. They’re us, I’m them.
palabra.: Tell us of one important takeaway from your Sky Blossom experience.
Richard: You start this out and you don’t know where this is going to go. You pinch yourself, but you also remember, you started because you are one in a large community. You have to remember what brought you right? I can’t forget that and I try to remind the team that we may want to scream it from the mountain top for ourselves, but we can’t. We’re screaming from the mountain top for all of those who brought us to this point—not only for the film, but more than that.
Saida Pagan is an award-winning Los Angeles-based freelance journalist, on-camera performer and television host. Born and raised in New York City, and of Puerto Rican heritage, Pagan has reported and produced for news organizations across the United States and has appeared in nearly 100 prime-time television programs, major motion pictures and other media projects. Pagan’s journalism has tackled social issues such human trafficking, workplace illness, child abuse and challenges faced by ethnic actors. Her TV news series, “The Color of Movies,” was placed in the archives of SAG-AFTRA after a special ceremony honoring her work. She is currently working on a documentary series chronicling the history of the city of Los Angeles.