PACKRAT SYNOPSIS 300 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.

In order to balance and give voice to the hoarding community, Kris finds Jack Jennings, a recovering Packrat. Jack’s family has found a solution to his hoarding by allowing him to keep his collection out of the house and in a barn on their property. Jack’s family also describes what it’s like living 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 a population of the elderly. This social worker talks about the difficulty in dealing with hoarding in a hospital environment and the daily issues she faces 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. Alford addresses some of the issues his clients have to deal with. He explains what he sees inside these homes, and the process he must go through with each job. 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.