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EQUALS on film: Time of Their Lives
Directed by Jocelyn Cammack
Synopsis
With a combined age of almost 300, Hetty, Rose and Alison love to share their concerns on everything from terrorism and global warming to sex, death and the meaning of life.
About the director
Jocelyn Cammack
Jocelyn graduated and worked as a research scientist before taking an MA in Fiction Film Direction at the Northern Film School in 1998. Working independently, she has written and directed both drama and documentary for BBC, Channel 4, Arté, the UK Film Council, Arts Council England and The Wellcome Trust. Her work has received several Best Film awards including a Gold Hugo, Pris UIP and first prize at Gijon and Reus as well as being nominated for a Television BAFTA, a short film Palm d’Or and a European Film Academy Award.
Now working through her new company Certain Pictures, Jocelyn has just completed the feature documentary The Time of Their Lives for BBC Storyville/UK Film Council and is also developing a number of other feature projects including the science fiction thriller Dupe, and the scientific ghost story Straight on ‘til Morning. Much of her work has been screened extensively at film festivals all over the world and broadcast repeatedly in Europe, the Americas and the Far East.
More Information
Rose, at 101, is the oldest newspaper columnist in the world; Hetty, 102, is still marching against war; and Alison, 88, a one-time Communist Party member is now a self-styled ‘establishment lady’. Surprising, passionate and at times very funny, they speak honestly from the end of life, bringing to the screen a rare perspective on old age.
Set in a residential home for the ‘active elderly’, this film is a portrait of life at the Mary Feilding Guild and of three of its oldest residents. With a combined age of almost 300, Hetty, Rose and Alison continue to be powerfully engaged in their individual brands of activism: Rose has a commitment to speak out for peace on Hiroshima Day; Hetty is preparing for her 84th anti-war march, while Alison is confronting failing health with her usual brand of curiosity and humour. Through the intimate and surprising revelations of these three women, we learn the truth about how very old people experience life and how they deal with the intense challenges – and the indignities - that old age can bring. Public and personal histories are interwoven with private philosophies which stride fearlessly into taboo areas where polite society often fears to tread. Sex, death and faith are spoken of with genuine curiosity and often great wit, rather than a sense of fear, titillation or sentimentality. And through a combination of carefully sourced and treated sound and the use of long-lens work, the film also brings us closer to the sensory experience of these three women, all of whom now rely heavily on hearing aids and are registered either blind or partially sighted.
Surprising, poignant and at times very funny, The Time of Their Lives recognises the rich experience and powerful stories older people have to share as they approach extreme old age and the inevitability of imminent death – people who are so often invisible, marginalised (especially in the media) viewed as victims, patronised or ignored. At the end of lives lived with passion and purpose, these engaging women now face the painful reality of physical, sometimes mental, deterioration and its consequences for their sense of identity and worth. In this singular community, Hetty, Rose, Alison and their friends find the strength to look into the void and speak frankly about death as something to be feared and yet to be welcomed. They are first-hand witnesses who have gone ahead and report back to us from the edge of their own mortality. They can tell us things of which no-one ever speaks.
Choose a version
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EQUALS on film: Time of Their Lives: Time of thier lives - PAL
- Description
- Time of Their Lives in PAL
- Running time
- 70 mins
- Rating
- Audio languages
- English
- Subtitle languages
- n/a
