Making an Exit: A Mother-Daughter Drama with Machine Tools, Alzheimer's, and Laughter, and: Losing a Life: A Daughter's Memoir of Caregiving (review)

Abstract

years, monographs, collections, and videos by and about older women have become available. Maggie Growls contributes to this effort and can be put to good use in women’s studies courses. The film is entertaining as well as informative. It uses wonderful footage, not only of Maggie Kuhn, but of the movements she was committed to. Thoughtful commentaries by those who knew her well—from housemates to Gray Panther leaders to public figures like Ralph Nader and Studs Terkel—are interspersed throughout the chronological narrative of Kuhn’s life. A surprisingly effective use of bits of animation enhances the visual quality of the film while adding a note of whimsy, intended, no doubt, to capture something of Kuhn’s own playful temperament. We are directly treated to that playfulness when, early in the film, she leads a large audience in the famed Gray Panther growl. With a mixture of mild embarrassment and joy, they follow her instructions: