My last post about the Festival Lumiere Blanche 2013 is the list of films shown.
For me the shorts were a real revelation. I felt sorry not to have given the genre more attention. The ones I saw at this Festival conveyed so concisely a variety of issues and would be a wonderful way of introducing workshops on certain aspects of ageing.
Father and Daughter (2001) Michael Dudok De Wit, The Lady and The Reaper (2009) Javier Recio Gracia, Ritorno al Mare (2011) Paolo Santangelo, Les Vieux : children view of old people, Les Vieux Jours: 1999 Angelo Cianci
Another discovery for me was the animated feature film genre. In this case Wrinkles that I mentioned in a previous post.
The feature films were chosen to present a variety of country of origin and main themes. I always refuse to declare what a film is about so I will just list them and hope that I can, later, study them and write about them in detail.
A simple life (2013) Ann Hui, Patas Arribas (2011) Alejandro Garcia Wiedemann, Song for Marion (2013) Paul Andrew Willliams, La Fleur de L’Age (2012) Nick Quinn, Land of Hope (2012) Shion Sono
Each post screening discussion was chaired by Dr. Depassio with a little introduction and answers from specialists in the field of the main theme of the film: psychologist, geriatrician, health workers, art therapist, music therapist, anti nuclear campaigner, psychiatrist, representative of local community associations. Animated talk and exchanges of view carried on for a while over wine and nibbles.
Finally this Festival demonstrated to me, what I already knew, the power of films to raise consciousness and mainly to share with others ideas and feelings. Is it possible to organise something similar in London? I wish…
Old Age and Feature Films 
Hello Rina,
I was pleased to meet you at this special film festival in Tassin la Demi Lune (half the Moon)
and I’m also pleased to read your comments on your blog. Nice job ! and very well written !
You give a good transcription of this event and may be the envy to your readers to come and see, next year … All welcome annyway ! Thanks and Bravo for your blog, youy sympathy and nice energy !
And I wanted also to give a little precision about the debates which took place after the films : I was sollicited to answer the audience question, in company of a music therapist, but as I am concerned I am not one , I’m an artist, a singer and actor and a teater director and I work with and among old people and we sing and play together and we present our shows to the audience when we have the opportunity to do it, and these artists enjoy themselves to dot it, singing and playing and also laughing, and that’s for this expreience I was asked to come and discuss, I was already 4 years ago to talk about another film : “I feeel good” and I came then with about 10 persons who sang after the film, it was an afternoon with many students, and I let them answers the questions of these students who really appreciated to see them. I think it’s important to notice the good impact of the pratice of the arts, also !
Hope tioread you soon. Friendly and Artisticly yours. Serge Sommer
Interesting to think about the potential for a similar programme. Perhaps
we should think about working toward this? Shorts do seem more possible.
What would we choose to inspire us? ‘iss’?
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 07:37:32 +0000 To: ewodell@hotmail.com
Maybe YOU can….?