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COURSE INFORMATION

Exploring Aging through Film

The quality and nature of later life experience is changing and so are attitudes. Canadians are living longer than ever before. Older, healthier adults continue to contribute to society and engage in a variety of meaningful activities, and more and more of us are recognizing this new, emerging vision of old age as our own. The impact of this "longevity revolution" on how we live and understand our lives has far-reaching implications and is being reexamined by governments, researchers and educators as well as those in the social sciences, arts and humanities.

Film, perhaps more than any other contemporary medium, offers portrayals of old age in a breadth of social contexts providing alternatives to the now-outdated views that equate aging with decline and age 65 with the end of development. How is the journey through later life depicted in modern films? How do these portrayals relate to the scientific data available on aging and development? Do these films reflect what we have learned and are learning about the aging process from those who have embarked on this later life journey? Do they ring true to our own experiences?

This course spans 10 weeks of feature film screenings, reading and group discussions, and will reshape your perspective on the changing realities of aging and how they are portrayed in film.

Listing of films:
There are nine film and discussion sessions and one final class discussion scheduled. The films are:

• The Straight Story
• Harry and Tonto
• Away from Her
• The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
• The Savages
• O’Horten
• Wrestling Ernest Hemingway
• Wild Strawberries
• Driving Miss Daisy

This course is also offered for undergraduate credit through the departments of geography, sociology and psychology at UVic.

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