Shorts Night: No Age Like the Third Age

Whether we like it or not: we’re all getting older, a little bit every day. If we’re lucky we make it to ninety. But that’s not always a good thing, as the collection of short films at this Shorts Night shows.

So many films have been made about pensioners in the last few years, that the term “grey wave” has already been coined. Cynics mainly see it as the shrewdness of the film industry, realising that the baby boomers are retiring and therefore have money and time to spend.

Pluk doesn’t like those cynics. We say: the elderly should always have been an integral part of films. It’s actually the pursuit of youthful sensuality and a glossy finish that’s only for profit. Cunning producers and studio bosses have been seeking out the freshest young talent to exploit for over a hundred years now – from Annabeth Gish via Audrey Hepburn to Shailene Woodley. But older people form the heart of cinema, because there is no other art form that can handle the passing of time like film can. Film is the passing of time – captured, halted and sometimes reversed for a few moments.

So: an evening full of short films about long lives. Just like the short films that are screened before the features during the rest of the festival, they present the full scope of movie making. One short might be tough, while the next might be sweet, or melancholy. One or two of the people over eighty or ninety we meet in the films, may actually be quite done with it all, only preparing for the inevitable. Some observe with pity, with eyes that have already seen everything. But most of them are more active than ever, and in the prime of their lives.

Joost Broeren
Translation: Marjan Westbroek