PACKRAT SYNOPSIS 250 WORDS

Filmmaker Kris Britt Montag traces her family’s struggle to deal with “Packratting.” Through family interviews, Kris chronicles her father’s life and the development of the problem, which clinical professionals consider a possible symptom of Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder. Part personal and part informational, “Packrat” takes a look at what it’s like to grow up in a family where hoarding is an issue.

To give balance, Kris finds Jack Jennings, a recovering Packrat. Jack’s family has found a solution by allowing him to keep his collection in a barn on their property. Jack’s family describes what it’s like day to day with a Packrat and the constant struggle between the value of people versus the value of objects.

On the clinical side, Kris talks with a social worker who treats mainly the elderly. She talks about the difficulty in dealing with hoarding in a hospital environment and the daily issues in treating her clients. Randy Frost, a leading clinician in hoarding studies, addresses the hope of treatment and explains how the disorder manifests and progresses.

Hoarders sometimes find themselves evicted from their homes or apartments, injured due to clutter, and with other serious health and fire hazard issues. Kris found Ron Alford, who owns and operates Disaster Masters, specializing in crisis management. In all, Kris seeks out information to shed some light on and to find some resolution to her past, but also to help her deal with her own hoarding issues for the future.