11th(2009)
Deirdre FISHEL
Frances, 87, continues to enjoy a palpably sexual relationship with journalist David Steinberg, the love of her life she met at 80. Aware that many people see her as "nothing but an old woman," she is defiant in living life on her own terms. We meet Ruth who met her husband Harry after 30 years of dating hell; Harriet, a writer and bohemian who continues to see sex as the core of her life; and Freddie, who enjoyed the best sex of her life with her third husband Syd. We also meet sex expert Betty Dodson who met her boyfriend Eric, 47 years her junior, in cyberspace when she was 69. Betty's life stand not only in defiance of the sexual compliance expected of women, but as a reminder that what is really happening is often far more interesting than the limited scenarios the media create.
Still Doing It: The Intimate Lives of Women Over 65 breaks the perpetuating prejudice regarding love and sex in women over the age of 65: it criticizes the fact that the old are regarded as sexless, and challenges the reality that the old women are deprived of sexual lives as they grow older. The baby boomers of the US, 1960¡¯s hippies, held a most liberal philosophy about love and sex, but as they grow older their voices become diminished - so much so that it is almost impossible to hear them today. Where are these voices? Has society, with its taboo on old people¡¯s love forced the voices to disappear? Still Doing It: The Intimate Lives of Women Over 65 is a documentary film about Harriet who says ¡®bad sex is better than nothing,¡¯ Betty who is dating a man 40 years younger, Frances who is passionately in love with a man from the nursing home, Ellen who declared her coming-out at middle age, Anita who asserts that ¡®God will forgive my sex,¡¯ and other aged women. It follows these women over the age of 65, and features their voices - voices that talk about love and sex well after menopause. (Jay SOHN)
Synopsis
Frances, 87, continues to enjoy a palpably sexual relationship with journalist David Steinberg, the love of her life she met at 80. Aware that many people see her as \"nothing but an old woman,\" she is defiant in living life on her own terms. We meet Ruth who met her husband Harry after 30 years of dating hell; Harriet, a writer and bohemian who continues to see sex as the core of her life; and Freddie, who enjoyed the best sex of her life with her third husband Syd. We also meet sex expert Betty Dodson who met her boyfriend Eric, 47 years her junior, in cyberspace when she was 69. Betty\'s life stand not only in defiance of the sexual compliance expected of women, but as a reminder that what is really happening is often far more interesting than the limited scenarios the media create.
Program Note
Still Doing It: The Intimate Lives of Women Over 65 breaks the perpetuating prejudice regarding love and sex in women over the age of 65: it criticizes the fact that the old are regarded as sexless, and challenges the reality that the old women are deprived of sexual lives as they grow older. The baby boomers of the US, 1960¡¯s hippies, held a most liberal philosophy about love and sex, but as they grow older their voices become diminished - so much so that it is almost impossible to hear them today. Where are these voices? Has society, with its taboo on old people¡¯s love forced the voices to disappear? Still Doing It: The Intimate Lives of Women Over 65 is a documentary film about Harriet who says ¡®bad sex is better than nothing,¡¯ Betty who is dating a man 40 years younger, Frances who is passionately in love with a man from the nursing home, Ellen who declared her coming-out at middle age, Anita who asserts that ¡®God will forgive my sex,¡¯ and other aged women. It follows these women over the age of 65, and features their voices - voices that talk about love and sex well after menopause. (Jay SOHN)
Deirdre FISHELDeirdre FISHEL
Deirdre Fishel started her career at WNYC-TV in New York where she produced a program on women community organizers working to save the South Bronx. She then wrote/directed two award-winning dramatic shorts distributed by ¡®Women Make Movies¡¯ and a dramatic feature, Risk. Risk premiered in competition at Sundance and had a theatrical, wide video and international release. Right now, Deirdre is working on Sperm Donor X which looks at her own personal journey to become a single mother and the radical transformation of the American family due out Spring 2009.