Familiar Touch

  • Thursday, Feb 26

Showtimes updated on Tuesday evenings
Legend
OCOpen Captioned
Special Content
35mm
SFSensory Friendly

Familiar Touch

Q&A with filmmaker Sarah Friedland and experts on memory care

Ruth (Kathleen Chalfant), a retired cook, prepares breakfast in her sunny and cozy kitchen—a dish she seems to have made many times before, although small and puzzling errors now punctuate her comfortable routine. When her son (H. Jon Benjamin) arrives to dine with her, she mistakes him for a suitor. Their “date” takes them to an assisted living facility, which Ruth does not remember that she had previously selected for herself.

Among her fellow memory care residents, Ruth feels lost and adrift, certain she has found herself somewhere she does not belong. As she slowly begins to accept the warmth and support of care workers Vanessa (Carolyn Michelle) and Brian (Andy McQueen), she finds new ways to ground herself in her body, even as her mind embarks on a journey all its own. Writer-director Sarah Friedland’s coming-of-old-age feature compassionately follows the winding path of octogenarian Ruth’s shifting memories and desires while remaining rooted in her sage perspective.

"Friedland’s film, as sharp as it is soft, conveys both the terror of losing the life you recognize, and the intermittent, fragmented joy of finding it again."
Guy Lodge, Variety
"Chalfant’s Ruth is merely, momentously human: an older woman in need, but no less expressive of life’s fullness because of it. It’s a portrayal to remember, for as long as any of us can."
Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

SPECIAL EVENTS

Q&A with filmmaker Sarah Friedland and experts on memory care from White Plains Hospital Q&A with filmmaker Sarah Friedland and experts on memory care from White Plains Hospital Q&A with filmmaker Sarah Friedland and experts on memory care from White Plains Hospital

Q&A with filmmaker Sarah Friedland and experts on memory care from White Plains Hospital

Thursday, Feb. 26 2026, 7:00

  • Sarah Friedland is a filmmaker and choreographer working at the intersection of moving images and moving bodies. Her work has been presented in festivals and art spaces including the New York Film Festival, New Directors/New Films, Mubi, MoMA and the Performa19 Biennial. Sarah graduated from Brown University’s department of Modern Culture and Media and started her career assisting filmmakers including Steve McQueen, Mike S. Ryan, and Kelly Reichardt. From 2021 - 2022, she was both a Pina Bausch Fellow for Choreography and a NYSCA/NYFA Fellow in Film/Video, and was named to Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2023. Her short film trilogy, MOVEMENT EXERCISES, is distributed by Video Data Bank. Sarah has been working in creative aging for the last eight years, as a caregiver to artists with dementia, and as a teaching artist facilitating intergenerational films and workshops for older adults. Familiar Touch is her debut feature film.
  • Dr. Paul Eugene P. Lleva is the Director of Stroke Services at White Plains Hospital. He is board-certified in Neurology, Vascular Neurology, Neurosonology, and Internal Medicine. Prior to joining WPHPA, Dr. Lleva was an Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurology at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, CT and New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY. Dr. Lleva practiced as a Vascular and General Neurologist at Greenwich Hospital, where he also served as the Medical Director of Stroke. Dr. Lleva received his medical degree from the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Medicine and Surgery in the Philippines, where he graduated cum laude. He then completed residencies in Internal Medicine and in Neurology, both at Westchester Medical Center (WMC), where he was named Chief Neurology Resident. He also completed an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)- accredited Vascular Neurology fellowship at WMC, and received special training in Neurosonology at Wake Forest Medical Center. Dr. Lleva is a frequent lecturer on neurological topics at numerous conferences and has had his work published in such outlets as Stroke and Archives of Medical Science.
  • Laura Himmelstein is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a specialization in children and families.  She earned her Master’s in Social Work and a Certificate for Post Masters Health Care Management specializing in Palliative and End of Life Care from Fordham University.  Laura is also a Certified Healing Touch Practitioner, Certified Thought Field Therapy Practitioner and Certified Teacher Trainer in Breath-Body-Mind curriculum. Laura is the Coordinator for the Caregiver Support and Healing Touch Programs at White Plains Hospital. Laura provides support to families faced with serious and complex illness. She facilitates various support groups for family caregivers at the hospital and Center for Cancer Care as well as bereavement support groups at various agencies. Laura teaches stress management, meditation, breath-body-mind classes and seminars to patients, families and health care professionals at White Plains Hospitals and at other institutions.

Tickets: $15 (members), $20 (nonmembers)

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PAST EVENTS

Q&A with actress Kathleen Chalfant
Wednesday, Jul. 9 2025, 7:15
This event is over. View all of our upcoming events.

  • Kathleen Chalfant has spent more than five decades performing on stage, screen, and TV. She is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Vivian Bearing in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Wit, for which she received Obie, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, and Ovation awards. Other critically acclaimed roles include Hannah Pitt/Ethel Rosenberg in the original cast of Tony Kushner’s groundbreaking Angels in America, receiving nominations for both the Tony and Drama Desk Awards. Notable film credits include Kinsey, Duplicity, and The Last Days of Disco, among many others. Her beloved TV characters include playing Margaret Butler on Showtime’s The Affair, as well as roles in House of Cards, The AmericansMadame Secretary, Elementary, High Maintenence, and all of the various Law and Orders. Kathleen has collaborated with acclaimed experimental filmmakers and choreographers, including Yvonne Rainer, Barbara Hammer, and Pam Tanowitz

This film is part of the Community Matters: Health and Wellness Spotlight series.



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