How Long Is “Assisted Living”?

The first film for writer/director/producer Elliot Greenebaum, Assisted Living chronicles a day in the life of a young nursing home janitor. Michael Bonsignore stars as Todd, the pot-smoking custodian who takes pleasure in toying with the senile residents of the retirement community. When one of the residents mistakes Todd for her son, he finds himself becoming emotionally attached to his work for the first time. In order to lend the film a realistic fly-on-the-wall quality, Greenebaum shot it in an actual nursing home, using real residents as many of the actors, and mixed in footage from a documentary he had made at the facility, blurring the lines between fact and fiction. Assisted Living won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2003 Slamdance Film Festival.