Thursday, May 13, 2010

Autumn Gold (Herbstgold) (Director: Jan Tenhaven): The very defin­i­tion of a crowd-pleaser, Autumn Gold was greeted with a standing ova­tion and thun­derous applause at its world premiere screening. It’s a can’t-miss for­mula. Follow five ath­letes, all over 80 years of age, as they pre­pare for the World Masters Athletics Championships, held in 2009 in Lahti, Finland. Though it com­bines two very shop­worn doc­u­mentary ele­ments (eld­erly sub­jects, a big com­pet­i­tion), the film man­ages to tran­scend the for­mula by keeping its focus very much on the par­ti­cipants in the present and not delving too deeply into their past lives.

Our first intro­duc­tion to each of the five ath­letes is to join them as they train. The first thing we realize is that these are all ser­ious ath­letes, and that these games are not just about par­ti­cip­a­tion. There is real com­pet­i­tion, and our sub­jects are seeking not only gold medals but world records. And most of these folks have been ath­letes for a very long time.

Youngest is Jiri Soukup, an 82-year-old high jumper from the Czech Republic. His ambi­tion is to clear a height of 1 metre. Watching the scenes with his wife was charming. The best part of Jiri’s workouts is when he comes home after­wards to a soothing mas­sage from his sweet­heart. Though she wor­ries about him injuring him­self, she knows that he’s an ath­lete and that he won’t stop competing.

85-year-old Ilse Pleuger, from Germany, is a world-class shot putter, hoping to break the 6 metre bar­rier and win gold. The death of her beloved hus­band motiv­ated her to train and com­pete even harder.

The age­less Italian Gabre Gabric, still glam­ourous and flex­ible, refuses to reveal her age. “What’s an old woman? Who’s sup­posed to be an old woman? Not me!” she says. She’s a vet­eran of the discus, and hoping to break 13 metres.

With a twinkle in his eye, 93-year-old sprinter Herbert Liedtke tells you he still has an eye for the ladies. And more than just an eye. Although the Stockholm native is training hard for the 100m dash, he’s still looking for a girl­friend, too.

Most mira­cu­lous of all is 100-year-old Austrian Alfred Proksch, still throwing the discus; that is, when he’s not painting nude women in his studio.

And though he’s not fea­tured in the film, you will be awed by the incred­ible Italian Ugo Sansonetti. His appear­ance at the com­pet­i­tion was nothing short of jaw-dropping for a variety of reasons.

Each of these char­ac­ters could have car­ried a film by them­selves. What they have in common is that they are all both lit­er­ally and fig­ur­at­ively com­fort­able in their skins. They recog­nize that they are slowing down, that their bodies are no longer as effi­cient as they used to be. But they also recog­nize that what’s most important is their drive to com­pete, and by com­peting with ath­letes their own age, they can still win medals and achieve world records. Recognizing that they may only have a few years left has helped these ath­letes focus more intently on their short-term goals. It’s both touching and inspiring to see how each of them has lived and con­tinues to live their life to the fullest.

Official site of the film

Here is the Q&A with dir­ector Jan Tenhaven from after the screening, con­ducted by Hot Docs pro­grammer Myrocia Watamaniuk:

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Duration: 12:45

(8/10)

Tagged as: #hotdocs10, aging, athletes, athletics, sports

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