Jack Huggins is sixty-five years old. He doesn't take very good care of himself, but he lavishes attention on his menagerie of cats. He repairs and hoards electronic equipment he has picked from the garbage. When Jack did not comply with a Health Department order to clean up, he was forcefully removed from his home, certified incompetent, and the Public Trustee took charge of his affairs. Jack felt that he was being treated "like Mr. Nobody. Just Mr. Nobody out on the street." This film will provoke the discussion of legal and ethical dilemmas concerning the self-neglecting elderly. Do mentally competent elders have the right to neglect themselves? Does the state have an obligation to intervene?
1987, 35 min 45 s
National Film Board of Canada Production
© All Rights Reserved, 2007
