WISDOM GONE WILD, a new film by Associate Professor Rea Tajiri, premieres Monday, Nov. 20th on PBS! 

WISDOM GONE WILD is directed by Rea Tajiri (History and Memory, Strawberry Fields) and produced by Sian Evans and Tajiri in association with The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM). The vibrant cine-poem tells the remarkable story of Rose Tajiri, a Nisei woman who at the end of her life, following the onset of dementia, reinvents herself through her interactions with her daughter/care partner, bestowing a new name and identity on herself, altering her past along with her present. WISDOM GONE WILD renders a new look at dementia and presents a daughter’s evolution towards compassionate caregiving.  

Director Rea Tajiri offers a different story about aging, and about living with dementia. Rather than centering a disease, the film centers the form and content of Rose's perspective, telling the story of a life to be valued rather than a problem to be willed away. 

At 93, Rose Tajiri is a history keeper and a chronicler of Japanese American experience. Diagnosed with dementia at the age of 76, Rose’s non-chronological access to key historical events is cued through daily encounters and reminiscences. Embarking on a fifteen-year odyssey, Rea gains wisdom by listening to the metaphors in her mother’s conversations. Rose’s allegories reveal her incarceration in a World War II concentration camp and a childhood as the daughter of Nikkei farmers in California’s strawberry fields. 

These stories help caregivers understand Rose’s needs and revise their care. Rea learns to identify Rose’s hopes and fears as they create a unique relationship based on play, improvisation and humor. The two travel together towards the end of life, each transformed by a journey through memory and the mind. 

“With this film, I draw audiences to the possibilities of connection and intimacy with loved ones who live with dementia,” said director Rea Tajiri. “Through a portrayal of intimacy, I wish to normalize witnessing and listening to elders; to value their stories, their wisdom and their lived experience.” 

WISDOM GONE WILD made its world premiere here in Philadelphia at the 2022 BlackStar Film Festival where it won the Audience Award and Jury Award and Honorable Mention for “Best Documentary.” Additional 2022 accolades include: “Best Documentary Feature,” and “Audience Choice, Best Documentary,” at the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival; and the Grand Jury Prize at the San Diego Asian Film Festival. In 2023, the documentary took home the New Cinema Award at the Berwick Film and Media Festival and garnered Honorable Mention, “Best Documentary Feature,” at the Austin Asian American Film Festival. 

WISDOM GONE WILD makes its national broadcast premiere on POV, Monday, November 20, 2023 at 10pm (check local listings) and available to stream without PBS Passport membership until February 20, 2024 at pbs.org, and the PBS App.

Congratulations, Rea, and congratulations to the entire team!