Doc Star of the Month: Barbara Lochiatto, 'Some Kind of Heaven'

The Villages, which bills itself as “Florida’s friendliest hometown,” has made news in recent years not for its supposed status as an adult retirement community utopia, but for being a loud and proud, geriatric MAGA stronghold. (Though the age 55-and-up place also made headlines just prior to the presidential election for a rumored pro-Biden turn against Trump.) Fortunately, first-time feature filmmaker Lance Oppenheim decided to set all politics aside when venturing into this heart of Disneyfied darkness. Instead, Oppenheim opted to craft Some Kind of Heaven, an exquisite character study centered around several of the paradise-branded town’s denizens, who struggle with everything from drug addiction, to Peter Pan syndrome, to looking for love in all the wrong places. Indeed, for those seeking eternal youth — specifically the existential hell of being a teenager — it seems The Villages really does live up to its hype. One of those intrepid residents in the doc spotlight is Barbara Lochiatto, a Bostonian who relocated to The Villages over a decade ago with her husband, Paul. But rather than partaking in the golden years dream as initially intended, Lochiatto soon found herself a grieving widow, adrift in a sea of fake nails and customized golf carts.

To read my interview with this down-to-earth fish-out-of-water (and aspiring actress) visit Documentary magazine.