Waterloo's Tom Farr goes home in documentary celebrating 10 years of Elder Wisdom campaign

For Waterloo's Tom Farr, taking part in a documentary for the first time was a surreal experience.

"To have a camera crew follow you from the time you get out of bed, until you basically go back to bed, like they followed me the whole day, it was just surreal to be honest with you," Farr told CBC News.

Farr was among five residents from Schlegel Villages in southwestern Ontario that took part in a new documentary called The Green Bench to highlight 10 years of the long-term care home's Elder Wisdom campaign.

Schlegel Villages has 20 locations in the province as well as the Schlegel UW Research Institute for Aging in Waterloo.

The campaign, launched in 2016, encourages people to sit on a green bench and speak with seniors and learn from them while breaking down ageist stereotypes and celebrate what seniors bring to the community.

"The young people now don't sit down with their grandparents and their parents and hear their stories like how I use to hear stories," Farr said.

The documentary followed the residents as they took a journey to a special place in their lives. For Farr, who is almost 60, it was visiting his childhood home in Elmira.

He said the visit was emotional as he hadn't seen the home in a long time.

"When I was 23, I turned down buying the farm from my parents and when I look at what that farm is worth now and what they were offering it to me for, like hindsight is 20-20 of course, but the nice thing is it's friends of mine who own it now," he said.

Farr said seeing the house brought back childhood memories. It's still the original house, but with some renovations, he said.

"All the stuff they did to the interior was stuff my mom dreamed of and they brought that dream to life," Farr said.

"They put a pool in right where my mom wanted one. It's nice to see that they did all the renovations, but it's still the old house."

After visiting his childhood home, the film crew and Schlegel Villages staff set up an Elder Wisdom bench at the Elmira cenotaph, where Farr spoke to community members for four hours.

"It was an honour to sit on it," he said.