Dear Bubbe,
I saw a film that reminded me of you! It’s a documentary called “Sunset Story” about an assisted-living facility in L.A. (Sunset Hall) for aging radicals. It’s fabulous in a very low-key way. Totally charming without being either maudlin or condescending.
The main focus is about a friendship between a 95-year-old woman named Lucille Alpert, who’s Jewish, and her best friend, this Scandinavian gal named Irja Lloyd, who’s practically a spring chicken at 80. They reminded me of you and Helen — both entered the facility at the same time, both have all their marbles and they bonded because they found someone like-minded they could talk to.
Because they were a social worker and a special ed teacher, respectively, they still are very political and go to rallies and demonstrations, They register the staff workers to vote as well as fret over their pay. It’s like your place, lots of kvetching over the food, visits to doctors, except in Sunset Hall’s library, there are large-print works of Lenin and “Free Mumia” signs adorning the balconies outside their rooms!
You’d really relate to Lucille, what with the thick glasses, the bad wig, the full makeup and festive scarf — shlepping her purse even to a fire drill! (OK, so not the bad wig part, but you get the picture!) In her younger years, Lucille was a dead-ringer for Golda Meir. She punctuates half her sentences with “oy vey” and has a very dry and caustic deadpan wit. I swear I thought she was channeling you when she complained the kitchen staff had never heard of tangerines!?!
Irja, (non-Jewish, although she claims her mother descended from members of the “Lost Tribe” who found their way to Finland), is relentlessly optimistic, despite the fact that her heart attacks have necessitated a wheelchair. One of the highlights of the film is watching her attempts to get the very assimilated Jews at the home to celebrate the Jewish New Year and tashlich, the ceremony by the water.
Together they form a mutually supportive “train,” Irja’s wheelchair with Lucille pushing her with her cane. Irja’s often-asked question — “Are we connected?” — before setting off for the dining hall, becomes the heart of this film.
I originally saw this film in July at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival and was totally moved and delighted by it.
I can almost hear you asking, “Who wants to see a film about old Jewish ladies in a nursing home?” But it’s everything a film should be: It’s both political and personal, subtle — a slice of life you rarely see so intimately. (Speaking of which, I’ll be down there in two weeks, don’t worry!)
It’s quite funny, in a non-patronizing way … whether the residents are singing “Blowing in the Wind” after a Free Thinkers meeting, or zeroing in on a woman with Alzheimer’s who is trying to explain why she must escape the facility to a very patient, loving, Filipina staff worker. (Yes, there too!)
The filmmaker, Laura Gabbert (probably a nice Jewish girl), lucked out, because there is a natural arc to the story filled with their sicknesses, etc. (Don’t worry I won’t give away the ending.) She explores very gently the natural waxing and waning of their friendship.
It’s not depressing though. It’s thought-provoking and mature. I really think you’d get a kick out of it, as you rarely see documentaries about the elderly as full-blooded three-dimensional people. Finally a good, Jewish documentary and the Holocaust isn’t even mentioned once!
But who am I to tell you what to see? Go now! It’s worth the shlep to San Francisco’s Red Vic between March 6 and the 8. (It’s wheelchair accessible and seniors are only $4; such a deal!)
Much love,
Andrea
“Sunset Story” plays Sunday to Tuesday, March 6-8, at the Red Vic, 1727 Haight St., S.F. Information: (415) 668-3994 or www.redvicmoviehouse.com.
Writer Andrea Carla Michaels is a San Francisco freelancer and puzzle maker.