passed and the president sitting down with gop senators to hopefully help him do that on tuesday. we'll be watching that. so, please, stick around with us then. meantime, here is "mtp daily." it starts right now. hello there, and happy day after thanksgiving. i hope you're enjoying your holiday, wherever you are. we're thankful you're spending a little time with us today. in honor of the holiday we're going to do something a little different from what we typically do here on "mtp daily." you've proerd heard, "meet the press" is now in the documentary film business. just last week we hit the big screen first time ever with a launch of the "meet the press" film festival in collaboration with the american film institute. featured 16 films and topics from opioid to immigration and

refugees to second chances after prison. tonight we're going to bring you four of those stories that are at the intersection of politics and culture. with president trump and supporters pursuing his campaign goal to build that wall, we're going to take you to a place on the u.s./mexico border where they're doing just fine without a wall. >> people go down there expecting it to be like this big commercial port of entry and are like, it's a rowboat? >> that's right. rowboats. we'll introduce you to edith and eddie, found love in twilight years only to have it ripped away by the legal system and a family feud. >> yes, it was love at first sight. >> you don't tear up after that one, then you will never cry. and we'll take time, back in time, just over a year ago. election day 2016 when thousands of people showed up to pay tribute to susan brchl. anthony

>> i have a daughter one day and turns to me, dad i want to be president i can remember this day and say proudly, yes, you can. you can do it. >> but we begin with a moving firsthand account what it's like on the front lines of this country's opioid crisis every single day. 64,000 americans died from drug overdoses last year. 21% increase from 2015. the bulk of those reported deaths came from heroin and opioids. this film, "heroin" follows the crisis in huntington, west virginia. the overdotes rase rate is ten the national average. three willing trying to break the cycle of tragic drug abuse. >> sad when you can drive around the city and say, oh, somebody died there, somebody died there. but that's the reality of this area. this white house right here, we had two deaths in that house in 2015. it's crazy.

when you add hopelessness and unemployment and lack of education on top of all of that, it's kind of like a, a recipe for disaster. i fear that we've lost a couple generations. not just one generation. i fear we've lost more than that. >> i'm not sure what a plateau is going to look like. [ sirens ] you know, i see this as a country-wide problem that has the potential to bankrupt the country. we conservatively estimated that this county, talking 96,000 people, spent probably about $100 million in health coverage with i.v. drug use. one small county, in one small state. i can't even fathom what it's going to look like when it plateaus. but i know it won't be welcomed.

recently i spoke with jane, chief of the huntington, west virginia fire did he want you just saw in that clip. with heroin, filmmaker elaine mcmillen schelheldon who made t film. i spoke with them, a national emergency, would free up more money to fight the problem. >> i certainly think that it's an important first step for us to take, and the fact that there were representatives from our state and our area there behind president trump at least there is a recognition of how bad the problem is, and that we need to do more for that. some of the things that were announced yesterday are going to help us. such as, medicaid and medicare allowed to be utilized for residents, or in-resident programs for more than 16 beds. that's going to be a big help.

but there's still so much to do. there's so many layers to this onion. but, you know, i welcome and support any if first step, and anything that we receive after that. >> let's talk about, to me it's -- we've got a series of baby steps we have to do. haven't done them yet. elaine -- >> yes. >> -- what are the baby steps you think if every member of congress saw this film, saw "heroin" they would be running to do immediately? what do you believe your film would do to motivate them immediately? >> the film is traiing to create more empathy around this problem. i think the average person may not realize how big of a problem this is, and once it hits their backyard they're going to realize it. the film is adding to that conversation. clearly there needs to be more money put towards this problem, more resources, more options, more detox beds. there's eight detox beds in the

entire county area, here, a bottleneck for people trying to get into treatment here. so options. you can't get yourself out of addiction without options to help yourself. so -- >> do you have, if everybody in cobble county came and wanted help with detox, help with getting off of this addiction, could you handle -- cot community ha could the community handle that? every came in said i need help, would you have resources to treat those folks? >> absolutely not. we don't have the resources to treat those who want the help. the red tape to get in to long-term recovery is just enormous. you take somebody who is in withdrawals. they need to be detoxed before they can get into treatment. we have not enough treatment beds. we don't have enough out-patient

resources as well. and, you know, if somebody -- wants to go to rehab, they have to be medically cleared, and then detoxed. it's such an arduous process. and both hospitals here in huntington, west virginia, are in inundated. the e.r.s are clogged. they're overwhelmed. first responders are overwhelmed. you know, what elaine's film has done is shed a light and given people a first -- or a front-row view of what we are dealing with, and what first responders all around the country are dealing with. but, you know, we're trying to provide hope for people who need hope to start the process for recovery, and when they have to wait one week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, to get in to just a local detox center, they're losing hope minute by minute.

>> elaine, where did you discover these drugs were coming from? i mean, obviously, there's so many ways we've got to tackle this addiction, but one is to stop the flow. >> yeah. i mean, well, it started with prescription pills. it started with legal drugs, and in my hometown of logan it was a common thing growing up to see pill mills. once those got shut down, you know, heroin comes from many different places. from mexico. from the middle east. and then you're seeing fentanyl actually manufactured in china and jan can talk more about the strength of the fentante fentan sometimes narcan, takes more than one or two doses to bring someone back. its getting stronger. people don't know what to expect with what they're buying. it's scary. jan as a first responder, they don't know what someone's overdosed on until they see those toxicology screens and that can come, i don't know.

weeks later. you know, it's hard to get on top of things, because they change so quickly. >> chief, i was -- we've seen all of the pictures of fema rushing in to a florida, rushing into a texas, rushing into a puerto rico, and what you two are describing and what elaine film's shows, this is a disaster. it sounds like we need a fema-like response. that we need, you need an inundation of first responders? sounds like? you need people from all over country. you need beds. temporary clinic beds. things like that. how do we create that mind-set? that, hey, think of this is a tornado came in and hit thousands of communities? what, how would the country respond? is that the mind-set we should have? >> i would love to see that mind-set, and i think that films like "heroin" are going to show the country that this is -- this

is how it is. you know, huntington is not necessarily ground zero. it looks like ground zero, because we own the problem, and we're willing to talk about it, but this is happening all over the country. this is one, small county and one, small state. you multiply what we spend daily, weekly, monthly on the medical cost alone from i.v. drug use. it makes way more sense to provide recovery for those suffering from substance abuse disorder than to continue down this road, where we're probably going to bankrupt the country. >> well, that's -- maybe if -- maybe if -- if empathy doesn't motivate, maybe finances will. anyway, it's terrific, important and poignant film. thank you for making it. up next, we're going to take you to a place on the

u.s./mexico border where tourists have been crossing the rio grande freely for decades with the help of a ferry man in a rowboat. the president's proposed border wall could change all of it. keep it right here on this special edition of "mtp daily."

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i will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and i will have mexico pay for that wall. mark my words. >> welcome back. president trump campaigned on a u.s./mexican border wall and that promise remains a rallying cry for many supporters. but for big ben national park in texas a border wall means disrupting a decades-old partnership between the united states and mexico. it was originally proposed as an international peace park, but now it's become a focal point for the debate on border security. here's a moment from the documentary "ferry man at the wall." >> i would like to see the border fence built, but if

mexico's not for it -- >> we've got to know how to -- >> and the people said build the wall. >> they said build the wall. >> talking about putting it in the middle of a river one thing. putting up at the border -- >> that's -- [ talking on top of one another ] >> one at a time. >> i've lived by the border almost 40 years. these countries are intertwined more than people ever imagined. politicians get a lot of mileage out of talking hard about the board are when they absolutely don't have a clue. >> has there been any renewed conversations regarding the potential building of a wall through the park? >> any comments about the wall, go ahead and refer to that washington office again. here at big bend, we currently have a national park on the u.s. side and protected areas on the mexican side as well.

in 2013, we were able to open a port of entry here in the park. so visitors that come to big bend can cross into mexico. people go down there expecting it to be like this big commercial port of entry and are like, it's a rowboat? cool! >> we've got a big line over there. >> mike is one of the partners with the park. he has the commercial permits in order to run the international ferry. essentially it's a rowboat. >> recently i sat down with the filmmaker david fried and asked him what drew him to this story at big bend national park. >> well, the wall was a big story. still is. at the time we were researching, we made 40 films in our first year. were constantly having our ear to the ground for a great story and we were looking into the wall and we found mike davidson, our ferryman. >> looking for a wall story? >> we were looking -- >> you didn't know -- wasn't a

case it sort of came to you? we want to do a wall story. what are different ideas? >> yes. it happens a lot. a lot of times we don't find the right story and have to drop it and move on. in this case we found mike davidson, our ferryman and he operates the international ferry between the united states and mexico, essentially it's a rowboat ferried 11,000 people a year. doing it 40 years now. and i just found him to just be a really interesting and unique voice that i haven't seen on this debate. the thing that really got us excited was finding out about the international park, something we also feature in the film, which in 1932 was proposed between two parks. one in america in montana. glacier national park and a sister park in canada and it was passed. we have an international park i didn't even know existed. >> makes sense? think about it. oh. why wouldn't we? thought the same thing. >> it's a beautiful utopian

idea. you know? and apparently the following year, 1933, the exact same thing was proposed between big bend, and its sister park in mexico. and it's been proposed again a couple years later and proposed again and i guess it's still just a work in progress. >> but it is a work in progress. meaning, we obviously still want it to be a park on the u.s. side and the mexicans still want it to be a park on their side. so if it didn't officially become a park, how did what we have become what it is? >> it's an agreement. it's a handshake. it's not formal. so i guess our geologists aren't cooperating with their geologists financially. they have, a little town there. it's an amazingly charming mexican village that is so far away from the -- the stuff that you hear on tv about, you know, sort of danger around the border and everything else. it's impossibly adorable, and a

lot of americans go to big bend national park in texas to visit one of the best features of big bend national park is this village. >> the idea you cross over, hey, it's like -- feels to me like a kwa quaint version of tijuana? more like a village. go to a village. tijuana's its own thing. this feels like the same idea. >> that's right. and they are actually -- i think it was four or five hours by road close to the closest other mexican town, population center in mexico. they're pretty isolated. their nearest population center is big bend. >> you said you were looking for a wall story. why? like, what -- were you trying to debunk -- going in there looking to debunk mythology? what was the goal? >> we hear a lot of pundits with very strong opinions on both

sides, right and left, and it gets noisy. the arguments get noisy and a lot of them i don't think, i don't know for sure, but a lot of them haven't really seen the, the border area themselves. i just learned today that big bend national park actually encompasses 13% of the u.s./mexico border. that's a really -- >> not a small chunk. >> not a small chunk of change. and so when they're debating here about the pluses and minuses of a wall, i wanted to see for myself what the locals felt. what was actually happening there on the ground, and what i learned was that there isn't a straight line. there isn't an easy way to divide the two nations. there's a lot of cross-culture collaboration. >> the thing i've noticed with the border and with folks that live on the border is, boy, you know, they're all nuance on this issue. as you would expect. i grew up in miami. so we had similar debates in the '70s and '80s about immigration. weird to hear other people

talking about it and your community has its own, when you live it, you live it differently. what did you find -- one of my favorite characters in there is the gentleman that says, i was born in mexico. this is about legal immigration -- wait. i'm kind of a hypocrite. some of my family is here illegally, too. he seems to be torn. an interesting character in this. >> robert, one of our three ferry man. the main character, mike davidson, but heels also a ferryman, gives them border tours on atvs, was born in mexico. tells us about half of his family, i don't mean to get anyone in trouble, half his family are here questionably, say and he is a trump fan, trump supporter and i don't want to play armchair psychologist with the guy, but it seemed to me that he was a person that was just trying to fit in where he was. he was a mexican living in texas. living in a time when there is a lot of noise around this issue, and maybe it's easier just to

sort of adapt and fit in, because i don't know. on personal level i noticed that maybe he wasn't such a supporter. he wouldn't say that on camera, but i hadfeeling. >> you get the sense everybody in the border states, no matter which side of the issue they're on, the minute it's personal, it's suddenly more nuanced by everybody? >> yeah. yeah. a good way to put it and what we discovered. the nuance. we wanted to find. pe suspected can't be just black and white. >> any thoughts about going to a more dangerous part of the border and doing a story? i mean it. what's fair, media focuses on the dangerous part of the border and you're going, hey, that's -- don't -- don't do the whole border that way. do you feel like we need to tell both stories better? >> i think the media's doing a great job and if people listen to what the media is doing, they're working their butts off. you guys, everybody's doing an

amazing job. of course, there could be, if we could spend a little more time on subjects instead of glossing over it, quick talking points, that's always helpful, because there is a lot of nuance behind all of this stuff. as far as telling the story on the more dangerous part is the part we hear most about pie wanted to go in the other direction. i had the pleasure working in jerusalem a few months crossing another wall between the west bank and jerusalem and that was a unique experience. living along -- >> when were you there? >> 2012. >> yeah. that's like -- their security fence is pretty scary -- looking. it's one of those, you're like -- and just sitting there going -- it's ugly. >> really ugly. >> and i -- thought about that. like, do i want to see this? do we want to see this on -- on our border? >> it's designed for that, i guess. designed to look intimidating. designed to make you feel

uncomfortable. >> right. >> there's gashed to yuard towe everywhere. you don't know if there's guards. >> fairness, sometime as hot border. a different situation. >> absolutely. >> we might all have a different feeling if rockets were being launched over the border. >> completely. >> let's set that aside. but it is odd to think about it. we actually put this in? >> yeah. probably going to be real ugly, and considering a 13% of that border is something we set aside for its beauty. seems you know, ironic. especially in a desert area where the river is so necessary. >> in a moment, show you how you can watch many of these films in our "mtp daily" film festival right online right now. coming up, honoring an historic day and an historic woman. >> i came because susan b. anthony is the reason i have a chance to vote.

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welcome back. you can watch all of the "mtp daily" film festival films featuring here today and quite a few more all online. a digital showcase online and on demand at nbcnews.com/mtp film. you can watch them on demand on your cable box or on apple tv, fire tv or your own rocoo. honoring a very special woman on a very special election day.

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welcome back to this special edition of "mtp daily." our next film chronicles an historic day at a historic place. rochester site, susan b. anthony became an emotional gathering place with thousands of people lining up to pay their respects on the day that they were voting. >> arrived here this morning, and shortly after i got here, a couple people showed up. a couple more. and a dozen more. and then hundreds, and now it's just -- i can't even lafrd to guess. just people all over the place. the wait is about an hour and 20 minutes right now. and it's been quite a sight. i've got to admit. ♪

♪ >> i was a world war ii pilot. i'm the mother of five children. three daughters. i'm here to pay respect to susan b. anthony, and also respect for elizabeth staten, who's only 45 miles away. and this is a day of a great achievement and we'll see what the american public will say. we hope it's in our favor, and -- women have come a long, long way in a century and a half. >> of course, we all know what

happened that night. this story conicals the optimism and ensuing heartbreak for many of those who went to anthony's grave. recently i sat down with the film's director and producer linda marone. >> well i have no doubt you thought about doing something like this before you -- obviously before you knew the result. >> yeah. it came pretty spontaneous. i was on a train from new york city going back to rochester two days before the election and nutritionally some people had shown up to the grave and put stickers. nothing to the degree that happened this time. and i just started thinking about it. and the wi-fi wasn't working on the train pine couldn't do my work. i finished my book and produced a documentary on the dalai lama but really not good at sitting still. my brain kept going and i started reaching out to local filmmakers. would you have a few hours to spare and film?

ultimately we had eight producers, eight cinematographers and three still photographers shooting from 7:30 to 10:30 at night on election day. >> simply you figured, let's see how many -- did you have a feeling just a flood of people it turned into? >> not 10,000 people. we definitely -- i knew the city had been making some stickers to replace the "i voted" stickers. but no one knew. no invitations. wasn't publicized. spontaneous and people came and waited in hours two hours -- happily. >> i assumed when you were framing the idea to do this you were thinking, no matter what, it will be an interesting story? >> yeah. >> so you knew that going in it didn't matter win or lose. you can make an argument, losing makes the documentary more poignant. that's why we went back and filmed the day after. >> yeah. >> it was definitely a day of celebration there.

people were excited to be there, and just talking about what a historic moment this was. that was our idea. to capture that moment in time. and with the different producers, the one question we had everyone ask is, why are you here? not necessarily who are you voting for, but why are you here? and it often came back and it was clear, often, by wa wheem were wearing who they were voting for, but -- you know, it was really about capturing a historic moment, then the election didn't go the way most of us there thought it was going to. so we had a conversation the next day and said, all right. let's send back a crew and keep filming and people were still coming to the grave. not 10,000 people, but people still needed to talk, and a lot of them were mourning and still in shock about what had happened. >> did you have a, a plan of what you thought the next day would be, if she had won? >> no. i think there was other places

around rochester. the ballot box, where susan b. anthony voted. there's her house that's there. i think people would have come to lots of other places, not just the grave. if she had won. >> hillary clinton's campaign throughout 2016, i always felt like was -- they would embrace the history and then sort of take a step toward it and take two steps back from it. 2008, definitely ran away from the historical aspect of the first woman president. this one sort of -- they were there and weren't there and there -- to the point of i know the idea of announcing at seneca falls was on the table for them. right? that could have been interesting. one of their ideas. >> right. >> do you wish they would have embraced this more? >> oh, absolutely. absolutely. i think -- you know -- speaking from this perspective of the people there at grave site. that's what it was about for so

many of them. it was having the ability to, you know, cast your vote for the first woman president. it was a huge thing, and it -- it weighed heavy on the minds of people that were there. in a good way. >> it's interesting. every time you can make an argument as you watch your film. >> uh-huh. >> depending on how long away from the election you are, just watching the clip now through the eyes of this cultural moment we're going through with women in the workplace. >> yeah. >> and yet it has nothing to do with it and everything to do with it. >> there's more resonance on a certain level. >> yes. >> we just screened this for in, for an audience in rochester, new york, of almost 200 people. there was mass amounts of weeping in the audience. many of the people had been there, reflected back to that time and i kind of felt guilty i wasn't handing out tissues to people, but i don't know how it's going to play outside of

rochester. that's, for me, really curious to see. but obviously -- >> i'm curious, too. you just said you wrapped up doing a film on the dalai lama. is politics something you wanted to delve into? that part of it, when you got into filmmaking? >> filmmaking? you know, being irish, i think social issues are very important, just running through my blood. but i come from a very political family, i didn't. first generation in the country and i think often that, you know, people that emigrate here are trying to assimilate much more quickly and not paying attention to that. so i wasn't brought up in a household, you know -- >> you live in rochester. >> i do. >> the idea of susan b. anthony is something that was just instinctive to you, oh, that's something we should locally -- >> yeah. i moved to rochester from new york city 11 years ago, and rochester embraces their history

with susan b. anthony. just as they do with frederick douglass. super important. buried not far from each other in the same graveyard. >> how did you decide on a topic? this one came to you on the amtrak? >> right. >> i'm always jealous of those folks. there it is! two days later, you produce something. >> right. >> is it always that way or do you have a, do you have sort of a set of issues that you always are looking to delve into? >> definitely things i am passion about and want to take on. i also worked on a piece about a literacy program for incarcerated parents at a small jail in ontario county in new york about being able for them to read to their children and maintain a relationship. not that i had ever been in jail before taking on this praump, but it was something as a parent that i thought if i had one drink too many, and got into an accident and was there being able to still stay in contact with my children would be

incredibly important. things i find and other things that come to me through people that i've worked with before, or want to work with. so there's -- you know, other projects in the hopper right now with, that i would be producer on other projects. >> what about this moment we're in with documentaries? it's like -- there have never been such great competition, but in a, obviously, a drat wgreat you're a creator or a producer. >> goes both ways. the ability to make documentaries is so much easier for people than ever before. shooting on -- >> two days. eight fimmaker friends, knew they could get there, done. equipment, everybody's got it now. that sort of thing. >> right. and i think -- but we consume so much more documentaries. on some level it's hard are for all of those movies to get seen. right?

there's only a finite number of festivals and stations and different ways of viewing it. but it's harder to be heard now, to find your audience than ever before. >> well, you're a great addition to the "mtp daily" festival. >> thank you very much. an honor. >> the documentary, "election day 2016." coming up, a love story both heartwarming and heartbreaking and makes you think hard about health care and the legal system in our country. elderly rights will become a bigger and bigger issue. trust me. be right back with more of our special edition of "mtp daily." awn evans: it's 6 am. 40 million americans are waking up to a gillette shave. and at our factory in boston, 1,200 workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. today we're bringing you america's number one shave at lower prices every day. putting money back in the

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welcome back. our next film is a love story about newlyweds, not your tippicsal couple. in 95 at 96 years old, the couple's oldest interracial couple. >> my wife passed away a few years before with alzheimer's and i told her a lot of clothes would probably fit her if she came around to see them and that was another -- she took some of the clothes. yes, if was love at first sight. it was. >> a little bird. >> uh-huh.

>> it flew away now. >> oh. >> beautiful. >> a beautiful place. >> uh-huh. >> here comes a bird. >> hmm? here comes what? >> yeah. it's taking off. going north, i guess. >> like to be thankful for it, you know? be able to see, and see without -- >> yeah. >> sadly, edith and eddie's love story was complicated by an issue many elderly americans face when they lose their ability to advocate for themselves. because of her mild dementia doctors decided edith needed a guardian to make life decisions. a family feud broke out over who should have that power and edith and eddie were separated against

their wishes and all captured on camera. because these folks were simply documentering the love story between edith and eddie when this came up. i recently spoke to the producer and began asking laura how she first found the newlyweds and her surprise when the story she was telling turned out to be a lot more complicated than she ever imagined. >> a friend texted me a photo circulating online. the couple had gotten married at age 95 and 96 and was being called america's oldest interracial newlyweds and i kept staring into their eyes in this photo and wanted to know more about them. so i contacted a, the journalist who posted it, who connected me with the family, and they invited me down to meet them. and i took a bus from new york city to virginia the next day, and started shooting the very next night. considering they're both almost 100 years old, thinking about all of the history that both of them have lived through, and

that they found each other in their mid-90s, that was what i initially intended to capture. and then the story quickly took a turn into, you know, a portrait of elder rights. >> laura, it felt as if -- it felt as if you caught this feud in the middle of this. how -- explain -- was that -- how uncomfortable did that feel at times, sort of being the fly, the proverbial fly on the wall during all of this? >> tough. as a documentarian that's what you sign up for. go on the adventure and often takes twists and turns you really don't expect. so we're open to that, and it was really tough for us to watch the couple be torn apart and we just -- you know, while shooting tried to put some of our own feelings aside and stick with the work that we're there to do,

and -- but our hearts were breaking behind the scenes. >> did you want to jump in? get involved and had to stop yourself? >> we weren't there to support them and also, just capture whay were going through. we know by showing the story, it speaks to a lot of elders across the country are going through. so we feel like it's urgent. >> so tell us how laura found you. >> i just turned 65 years old and about 10,000 people turn 65 every day. and i was caring for my father. when i saw the footage, i was profoundly touched in a very personal way. having to make decisions on behalf of your elderly parents and preparing for your own old age and telling your kids how you would like to be treated when you get older.

and with our elderly population, we wanted to touch people's hearts in a way that makes they will think about preventing the isolation that tends to happen to the elderly. and some of the things in the news of late, the terrible fiasco down in florida after the hurricane was just a real crisis. and you read things like this on a daily basis, the new immigration bill that the administration put out didn't even count grandparents as a nuclear family if they wanted to come into the country. so i think our whole attitude has to be changed. >> we're living longer. this issue of long term care will be an issue that probably does belong in the lap of some policy makers in the town that i reside in. but talk about this from a personal standpoint. how would you tell people to prepare for this? prepare to get old? prepare to live this long? >> right.

to address the d.c. part of the question, there was a senate bill just passed that shows a light at the end of the opportunity. the senate committee on aging passed bill 178 which is the elder abuse prevention and prosecution act. we don't know how it will be implemented yet but it is meant to provide education for the doj, law enforcement in general, and to provide victim assistance and some kind of federal oversight. because right now, state by state. the law is very different in each state in terms of of especially involuntary guardianship which our firm addresses. that has to be changed. on a personal basis, working with laura on this film and advocating for some changes in the law. i feel closer than ever. i try to stay in daily contact if possible. if not in person, by phone. it is really important that we keep them in our lives. >> how did it change your view of all this? did you have a view going in? is this something like, you

didn't know you were making this film with this message in it. how has it changed your view? >> the legal guardianship was not on my radar going into this. we thought this was just one circumstantial in a small town in virginia that we witnessed with this couple. come to find out that it is happening to elders all across the country and it is really a nationwide crisis. and so it has been a steep learning curve for me and just hearing horror stories from families who have reached out as well as many of the screenings of the film. audience members come up and almost everyone has some sort of personal story with their family not knowing how to grapple with end of life issues. so the biggest impact so far has been people who have sustain film saying that it inspired they will to go home and talk to their own families.

and really, we just want to urge people to look out for your loved ones and keep them close and hope to spark awareness. >> if you watch the credits all the way, there's a familiar anaheim there to some people. cher. i assume that's the cher. we obviously know it is the cher. tell us how she got involved. >> i was sitting in my bedroom in brooklyn one day and cher called me. she had seen the news clip that you see in the film. she had seen it singled indicated in her local news station in malibu. the same way that my heart leemd out of my chest when i first saw a photo of this couple. she was really moved by them as well and saw that their marriage was being threatened and wanted to know what she could do to help. so she got involved behind the scenes and hired an attorney to hept represent edith and her daughter rebecca in her fight to keep the couple together and to

bring edith back home of t. even with her generosity and falling out of the sky like a fairy godmother, she wasn't even able to get edith out of the grips of the guardianship system. >> tom, if you could get a screening for every member of congress to see this film, what do you hope they would takeaway from it? >> i hope that each of them in looking at their own families would feel the universal connectedness, regardless of their back ground, their political beliefs. the fling unites us all is family. and to take care of our families should be our highest value. the safety net that they need to provide coming from that part of the country, from d.c. it needs to emanate out all over the land. just take care of the people who are most vulnerable. and this includes the disabled veterans, people who have

reached a certain age and are vulnerable west need to protect them and cherish they will. >> this makes me say yes, i have to call my mother and grandmother more often than i do today. the first thing that you end up feeling. i'm sure that probably gives the both of you a good feeling too. that's the good impact i'll sure you want to have. congratulations, a terrific documentary. appreciate the time and effort that you put into it. >> thank you. >> we'll be back. of heart attack or stroke.r risk non-insulin victoza® lowers a1c, and now reduces cardiovascular risk. victoza® lowers my a1c and blood sugar better than the leading branded pill. (avo) and for people with type 2 diabetes treating cardiovascular disease, victoza® is now approved to lower the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. and while it isn't for weight loss,

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i hope you enjoyed those many deep dives. we'll be back on monday. in the meantime, enjoy the leftovers. happy thanksgiving. tonight, "the beat" goes to court. a special report. russia on trial. debating the evidence of collusion on location at the moot court in john jay college of criminal justice. where the former prosecutor and defense attorney present both sides of the trump-russia controversy to a live mock jury. now to tonight's host, msnbc chief legal correspondent, ari melber. >> hello. welcome to a very special edition of "the beat." we are at the moot courtroom today at the city