New People Presents Legacy Film Festival on Aging

NEW PEOPLE PRESENTS A TRULY GROWN-UP EVENT WITH THE LEGACY FILM FESTIVAL ON AGING

3-Day Festival Features International Films That Celebrate Seniors And Spotlight The Challenges And Triumphs Of Aging

San Francisco, CA, May 4, 2011 – NEW PEOPLE is proud to present the Legacy Film Festival on Aging, a special new film series that will inspire, educate and entertain intergenerational audiences about important issues surrounding aging and profiles unique individuals that lead meaningful lives well into their senior years.

The festival runs Friday, May 13th thru Sunday May 15th and showcases 13 feature and short films from around the world that celebrate older adulthood and deal with the challenges and triumphs of aging. Several of these films are also presented as double-features. The festival allows younger people to see their potential in older years and lets older people appreciate their own journeys to senior life. This is a wonderful experience to share together with audiences off all ages! For more info please visit LEGACY FILM FEST HOME PAGE or the NEW PEOPLE WORLD web site.

“There are currently over 95 million people in the U.S. over the age of fifty, with 40 million of them over the age of 65,” says Seiji Horibuchi, President and CEO of NEW PEOPLE Entertainment. “As seniors become an ever more significant part of our population, we should celebrate their wisdom, experiences and love of life. The 3-day Legacy Film Festival on Aging explores a variety of inspiring and sometimes controversial slice-of-life stories that create a wonderful experience to be shared by young and old alike.”

Ruth Asawa: Roots of an Artist
May 13th (Fri.) 6:30pm (Directed by Bob Toy, 37min, English)

An absorbing documentary portraying world-famous American artist Ruth Asawa, age 85, a beloved San Francisco icon of art and mentorship. Ruth’s fountains dot the San Francisco landscape, and her wire sculptures hang in museums worldwide. Learn the story of how Ruth’s kitchen table, where friends, artists, and students gathered, was donated to the Bethany Center in the Mission District, where Ruth’s Table is now the arts and creativity center for people over 50 living independent lives.

Post-screening Q&A with director Bob Toy; Ruth’s son and daughter Paul Lanier and Aiko Cuneo; Lola Fraknoi, of Ruth’s Table at the Bethany Center.

Tickets $11.00

5 Film Shorts
May 14th (Sat.) 1:00pm Tickets $11.00 for all 5 films

Advanced Style
(Directed by Lina Plioplyte, 3min, English)

Meet the stars of NY photographer Ari Seth Cohen’s Advanced Style, a blog devoted “to capturing the sartorial savvy of the senior set, … people who live life to the fullest, age gracefully and continue to grow and challenge themselves.”

A Mosaic Of Elders From Other Cultures
(Directed by HelpAge International (HAI), 5min, English)

HAI helps older people claim their rights, so that they can lead dignified, secure, active and healthy lives. Last year they changed the lives of 1.5 million older people across the world.

An Old Hand
(Directed by Amy Dickson, 3min, English)

“A portrait of my grandmother: Life continues to challenge us right into old age. Her greatest legacy to me is her tenacity.”

Beautifully Esther
(Directed by Ricardo Korda, 23min, English)

A drama about Esther and Joszi who live a quiet, sheltered life in Venice Beach, CA. Their stagnant daily routine comes to an end when Joszi suddenly collapses, and Esther finds out her husband was hiding a secret. Confronted by her husband’s reluctance to change, Esther must decide how she wants to spend the rest of her days.

Seniors Rocking
(Directed by Ruedi Gerber, 28min, English)

A delightful documentary that unveils the artistic process and captures the communal energy behind the unique performance created by American dance pioneer Anna Halprin with senior citizens from the Redwoods Community of Seniors in Marin County, CA.

Old People Driving & Nobody’s Business
May 14th (Sat.) 3:15pm

Old People Driving
(Directed by Shaleece Haas, 24min, English)

Director Shaleece Haas asks: “Can a person be simply too old to drive?” The film chronicles the adventures of Milton (age 96) and Herbert (age 99) as they confront a grim milestone: the end of their driving years. Crucial issues of safety and independence come to the forefront.

Nobody’s Business
(Directed by Alan Berliner, 60min, English)

Alan Berliner takes on his reclusive father as the reluctant subject of this film from 1996. It presents a uniquely cinematic biography that finds both humor and pathos in the swirl of conflicts and affections that bind father and son. This is a memorable essay about the nature of family relationships.

Post-screening Q&A with outspoken expert of career advice, Marty Nemko. Tickets $11.00 for both films

The First Grader [Premiere!]
May 14th (Sat.) 5:30pm (Directed by Justin Chadwick, 100min, English)

In a small, remote, primary school in the Kenyan bush, hundreds of children are jostling for a chance at free education newly promised by the Kenyan government in 2002. One applicant creates a stir: Maruge, an old Mau Mau veteran in his eighties. Having fought for the liberation of his country, Maruge is desperate to learn how to read at this late stage of his life — even if it means sitting in a classroom alongside six-year-olds. The film is a triumphant testimony to the transforming force of education. An enchanting true-life story, made more so by the fact Maruge would later address the United Nations about the need for education in Africa.

Tickets $11.00

HAPPY TO BE SO … & Ida’s Dance Club
May 15th (Sun.) 1:00pm

HAPPY TO BE SO…
(Directed by Yelena Demikovsky, 48min, English)

An affectionate and candid chronicle told with humor and irony by the principals themselves: two renowned ballet stars and current ballet masters Mireille Briane and Oleg Briansky, who have been married 50 years. They offer the viewer their shared days of glory, shining hours, and tragic reversals of fortune.

Ida’s Dance Club
(Directed by Dalit Kimor, 60min, English)

A ballroom dancing competition in a retirement community is the setting for this moving documentary portrait of individuals dancing against all odds. The participants are past retirement age, but that doesn’t stop them from dancing and singing, from falling in love — or not. The magical atmosphere of the club and the dancing gives them the strength to overcome the wear and tear of time, health problems and difficult memories.

Tickets $11.00 for both films

Over 90 & Loving It
May 15th (Sun.) 3:45pm (Directed by Susan Polis Schutz, 60min, English)

Is it ‘good genes,’ exercise and nutrition, caring for others, or just good luck that makes the subjects of this film so long-lived and passionate about life? The filmmaker interviews engaging characters living life to the fullest. Both their philosophies and actions should inspire intergenerational audiences to pick up the pace.

Tickets $11.00

Another Harvest Moon
May 15th (Sun.) 5:30pm (Directed by Greg W. Swartz, 90min, English)

This film is a sensitive drama of four elderly residents coping with life in a nursing home. When Frank, played by 93-year old Ernest Borgnine, suffers a second stroke, his friends and family, including his 15-year-old grandson, must confront their feelings about faith, dignity and obligations to loved ones. The cast includes: Academy-Award winner Ernest Borgnine, and award-winning veteran stars Doris Roberts, Ann Meara, Piper Laurie and Cybill Shepherd.

Post-screening Q&A with Compassion & Choices board membe Amy Hittner.

Tickets $11.00

NEW PEOPLE’s 143-seat subterranean theatre is located inside the NEW PEOPLE venue at 1746 Post Street in San Francisco’s Japantown and features plush seating, digital as well as 35mm projection, and a THX®-certified sound system.


About NEW PEOPLE, Inc.
Based in San Francisco, California, NEW PEOPLE, Inc. (http://www.newpeopleworld.com/) offers the latest films, art, fashion and retail brands from Japan through its unique entertainment destination as well as through licensing and distribution of selective Japanese films. NEW PEOPLE Entertainment (www.newpeopleent.com), a film division of NEW PEOPLE, Inc. strives to offer the most entertaining motion pictures straight from the "Kingdom of Pop" for audiences of all ages, especially the manga and anime generation, in North America. Some titles include DEATH NOTE, GANTZ, KAMIKAZE GIRLS, and THE TASTE OF TEA.