Chris Durrance, 56: Capturing Life Through the Caregiving Lens

You wouldn’t expect to run into a two-time Emmy and Peabody Award–winning documentary filmmaker—someone who’s graced the red carpet at the Tribeca Film Festival—at a long-term care conference in Philadelphia. But that’s exactly where life led Chris Durrance, founder and owner of Seven One Eight Studios. Serving as director and senior producer alongside Executive Producer Bradley Cooper and award-winning actress Uzo Aduba (who brings her own caregiving experience into the film’s narration), Chris delivers a powerful new documentary that illuminates the realities of caregiving in America and the urgent challenges facing millions of unpaid and professional caregivers. 

In Caregiving, Chris takes us inside the daily lives of six family and professional caregivers across the U.S., offering an unflinching look at what it means to provide full-time care. He captures the complex challenges as well as the profound moments of connection, joy, and pain that define the caregiving experience. In the film, you will meet Matthew (NY), a young father who became both his wife and son’s primary caregiver overnight; Jacob (FL), a 14-year-old who, along with his father, shares the role of caregiver for his mom; Tracy (CO), a young woman balancing the transition from daughter to caregiver for her father, who has dementia; and Zulma (NY), a paid home health aide by trade who comes home to care for her own family.

I had the chance to preview never-before-seen footage from this two-hour documentary, and its impact is undeniable. As I sat in the audience, my mother was receiving her first dose of chemotherapy, and I was more than a bit overwhelmed (there were very few dry eyes in the audience that morning). Bradley Cooper spoke frankly about the privilege, realities, and challenges of caring for his father as he battled lung cancer. And Chris Durrance’s closing remark highlighted a very real reality: “Every family has a care story.”

Chris brings a master’s degree in economics to his work, an unexpected asset in documentary filmmaking. With his analytical mind and intuitive grasp of how financial and cultural forces intersect, he has a rare ability to situate deeply personal stories within the larger systems that shape our world—from the mechanics of democracy and public policy to the evolution of scientific advancements. It’s a perspective that adds a powerful dimension to his films, though it’s admittedly a bit unfair that someone this sharp and accomplished also happens to have a disarmingly smooth British accent and the kind of relaxed charm that makes you forget you’re talking to someone with a shelf full of awards.

How old are you?
Fifty-six.

Where are you from and where are you currently based?
Born in London, UK. Currently based in Brooklyn, NY.

You’ve worked on some incredibly compelling stories—like The Madoff Affair, The Gene: An Intimate History, and The Story of Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies. What was it about Caregiving that made you want to take this on? What pulled you in on a personal or creative level?
Caregiving has been hands down the most meaningful as well as one of the most challenging films I’ve ever worked on. Care often takes place behind closed doors, stretching families to their absolute emotional, physical, and financial limits. It is the work that keeps our country going, and yet it doesn’t get the attention it deserves. As a team, WETA, Lea Pictures, and Ark Media decided this was an urgent and powerful story that needed to be told.

We noticed you have a master’s in economics. What led you to filmmaking and documentaries in particular?
I came to documentaries because of a desire to understand the world around me and the people and their stories that make life so rich and give it such meaning.

So, with Caregiving, how did the collaboration between WETA, Lea Pictures, and Ark Media shape the production? And what was it like working alongside Executive Producer Bradley Cooper?
We are so fortunate to get to make Caregiving alongside partners, such as Bradley Cooper and his team, and WETA, with whom we not only share a vision, but who are also determined to use it to convene people and spark thousands of conversations across the country about this vital issue.

How did Uzo Aduba come to narrate the film?
We wanted a strong voice to narrate the film and one that contained within it deep personal experience as a caregiver. When we presented the idea of narrating this film to Uzo Aduba, she immediately said yes. We couldn’t have asked for a better collaborator on the project.

You spent time with a wide range of caregivers during production. Are there one or two stories that deeply impacted you or shifted your understanding of caregiving?
Speaking here on behalf of the whole magnificent production team, we were all deeply impacted by every single family we met and every story we heard. It was an honor to get to experience first-hand the joys and the strain and even the sorrow that they were going through. For me personally, if I had to pick one set of stories, it would be the stories we heard from young caregivers. An estimated 5.4 million children and adolescents in the U.S. are direct caregivers. They go above and beyond for their loved ones and deserve our recognition for all the work they do.

Were there any unexpected moments or emotional turning points while filming that changed the direction or tone of the documentary?
Filmmaking is an ongoing process of listening and adjusting and refining, but the overall tone and direction of the film was the same from the time we conceived the story to the day we finished.

While working on this project, did you or your team uncover any systemic issues that affect caregivers in the U.S. specifically?
What we heard from many caregivers and experts in this field that we spoke to is that, in the U.S. today, caregivers often feel alone as they navigate what they describe as a complex patchwork of support at the local, state, and federal level. We also heard about so many initiatives to help families with their various caregiving needs that we felt both the scale of the caregiving challenge we face, in particular as our country ages, but also enormous hope.

What challenges did you face in portraying the diverse experiences of caregivers across different communities?
It was a huge challenge to portray the diversity of the caregiving experience in the United States. In addition to 5 million paid caregivers nationally, it is estimated that between 53 million to 105.6 million U.S. adults provide unpaid caregiving for ill, aging, or disabled family members and friends. That is a vast number of people, and every one of their experiences is unique. We traveled the country and brought together a range of stories, in the film and in the 18 short films we made about caregiving. We show that caregiving is both unique to every family and also a universal experience that we all share. In addition, in the film, we weave in the history of caregiving in this country. We hope viewers will find stories that resonate with them and be inspired to share their own stories.

How did you ensure that the documentary accurately represents the emotional and financial toll of caregiving?
Every caregiver will tell you about the joys, the strains, and the emotional, physical, and financial toll of caregiving. We were privileged to get to listen to their stories and then bring them to a national and international audience.

The film highlights how caregivers often operate in the background, yet form the backbone of our long-term care system. What do you hope viewers take away about the economic and emotional toll of caregiving?
Caregiving impacts everyone. All of us working on this project hope that by shining a light on this important issue viewers are inspired to come together as families, in their local communities, in their workplaces, in statehouses, in Congress, and beyond and that this sparks thousands of conversations across the country about caregiving.

With a national engagement campaign tied to the film, do you see Caregiving sparking real-world action or policy conversations?
The film and its national engagement campaign have brought together dozens of sponsors and partners, each with great expertise and a commitment to sparking conversations with their networks and their staff around the topic of caregiving—we hope for years to come.

How does the team plan to engage audiences beyond the film’s broadcast to support caregivers nationwide?
We’re inviting the public to join the conversation by sharing their own caregiving experiences on social media using #ShareYourCaregivingStory, or by contributing to the “We Are Well Beings Storywall” at WellBeings.org.

Caregiving premieres on 330 PBS stations on June 24 (check local listings); it will begin streaming May 27 on PBS.org and the PBS App. Nationwide, many communities have already told us that they are hosting screenings in public places, where audiences will have the opportunity to discuss and share their insights with each other.

In addition, we made eighteen short films on caregiving as part of this project. Readers can watch them at www.wellbeings.org.

What is one of the biggest misconceptions about filmmaking that you think people believe?
I don’t know what misconceptions the public has about filmmaking, but I’d imagine that they mostly hear about the making of documentary films from directors. In reality, every single frame of every film contains the expertise of dozens of the most creative and skilled professionals you could ever meet, from composers to camera people, from audio technicians to archivists and editors. And one of the great privileges of this work is that we get to come together and make films for everyone to enjoy and, we hope, be moved and inspired by.

Can you tell us a little about what life looks like outside of work—family, pets, hobbies? What keeps you grounded?
Three teenage kids keep me grounded; my hobbies include cycling and woodwork.

What are the three non-negotiables (i.e., the things you can’t live without) in your life today?
My family, my friends, and the dog who will be joining our family this summer.

Editor’s Note: Some answers may have been condensed and/or edited for clarity.

Be a part of the wider conversation by sharing your caregiving story at www.wellbeings.org/Share-Your-Story.

Chris and the team are also partnering with dozens of local PBS and NPR stations on Caregiving events around the country. You can check with your local station and join them on the Caregiving journey.

Cover image by John Midgley