News

by Robine Andrau, Scituate Mariner, 4.6.2016              

IT’S APRIL FOOLS’ DAY AND I FEEL A TAD FOOLISH, but I’ve signed up, so I’m going. I leave the house early to assure myself a good parking space near the entrance. When I get to the town parking lot in front of the movie theater, I’m lucky to find any space at all. Of course, I should have known, seniors are usually early. I’m happy for the senior center’s director, Linda Hayes, who organized this event. Perhaps there’ll be a fairly decent turnout, maybe even 30 or 40 people.

When I enter the theater, I’m floored. I do a rough count of those already seated as people keep pouring in. One hundred twenty I estimate. Maybe more. Most of those gray- and white-haired heads belong to women. Where are the men? Are they afraid to show up knowing they’re outnumbered? Or have they moved to apartments in Boston after losing their mates to divorce or death?

We’ve come to see “The Age of Love.” The movie shows non-actor seniors in their 70s and even 80s unafraid to reveal that no matter what their age, they desire companionship and relationships as much as do those many years younger. And these brave souls are up for taking part in an unrehearsed senior speed-dating event and doing it in front of cameras.   Continue Reading

by Nicole Villalpando, American-Statesman Staff, 2.12.2016

IN STEVEN LORING’S DOCUMENTARY, “THE AGE OF LOVE,” YOU WATCH AS MEN AND WOMEN in their 70s and 80s worry about what to wear, fret about body parts they don’t particularly like, consider what they will say and wonder who they will meet. They are getting ready for a speed dating event in Rochester, N.Y., that is specifically for people 70 and older.

Loring, who was a screenwriter, began this documentary as his master’s thesis in film. He had heard about speed dating events for seniors and found one in Rochester, where he grew up. He got permission from all 30 participants to film their stories before the event as well at the event and the results after.

He worried that no one would want to participate in telling their stories of their search for love. What he found was a generation hungry to have someone listen.    Continue Reading

DOES THE NEED FOR INTIMACY—and our search for love—change as we age?

Posing this question to audiences worldwide, The Age of Love has touched a cultural nerve and spurred a social movement, bashing stereotypes and empowering single seniors to seek new companionship.

During our upcoming Valentine’s Screening Campaign, audiences from St. Pete to the Canadian Pacific will have a chance to see the film and, in many cities, take part in one of dozens of Senior Speed Dating events now being organized.

So check out our poster for a city near you, then find the dates and details on our Screenings page.

If you don’t see your city, fill out our Hosting Info form, and we’ll help your group bring it to a local theater, university or community center. Our goal is to spread the message—that our bodies may change, but what we feel doesn’t change at all—to everyone.

Wishing a new year of happy hearts to lovers of every age!

 

COCKTAILS AT THE ELEGANT MAY FAIR bar preceded the London premiere of The Age of Love—part of a series of red-carpet film screenings organized by The Bright Young Things Film Club, which presents the work of up-and-coming actors and filmmakers (also included this season: Art and Craft, Maidentrip, Zero Motivation).

The audience of mostly young professionals and creatives was surprisingly emotional while witnessing this tale of our enduring search for love. And the Q&A brought up interesting questions. Here’s part of that conversation….

After an early festival screening of The Age of Love, a teenaged usher raised her hand and said, “I’ll never look at my grandmother the same way again!” For the first time, she saw older people not through the filter of age, but as people just like herself, struggling to connect, to be seen and understood by others.

And so, while The Age of Love entertains Boomers and empowers older adults, one major goal has been to screen the film for intergenerational audiences.

This summer, the principal of the East-West School for International Studies in Queens, NY, asked to schedule two screenings—one for 8th graders, the other for 11th graders—in conjunction with senior groups from nearby residences. The experience was eye-opening, to say the least.

One favorite comment came from a 13-year-old boy who stood up, looking stunned, and said, “I was shocked about this movie–these people, they had the same feelings as they had when they were young! You think people change emotionally in time, but it shows they still try to find someone. These people stayed the same and kept trying to find love!”

We look forward to partnering with more high schools and universities, to open eyes within the generations we truly need to reach.

 

by Craig Takeuchi, May 9, 2015

FROM VIAGRA TO INTERNET DATING, CULTURAL SHIFTS AND NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN SENIOR SEXUALITY have increasingly come into focus in the media and scientific studies. Forget about Sex and the City, it’s the time of Sex and the Seniors.

In The Age of Love, in which filmmaker Steven Loring chronicles the frequently amusing, sometimes moving experiences of 10 elders, between the ages of 70 and 90 years old, who try out the first senior speed-dating event in Rochester, New York.

The spirited cast of characters ranges from the adventure-addicted Addie, who does everything from skydiving to dating tribal chiefs to backpacking through Southeast Asia, and Frank, a bodybuilding champion in the over-80s division, to Matt, who is self-conscious about lugging around an oxygen tank.    Continue Reading

by Jennifer Wright, 4.25.2015

IF DATING AFTER 35 SEEMS DAUNTING, imagine dating after 70. That’s the subject of the documentary “The Age of Love,” which follows a group of 30 seniors in Rochester, NY, who sign up for a speed-dating event for those aged 70 to 90.

In the film, which will be screened for the public Thursday by Audicus at 447 Broadway in Manhattan, the seniors have to deal with the same anxieties about dating we all do — and some age-specific concerns, such as whether they can put aside their portable oxygen tanks to tango.

Director Steven Loring was inspired to make the film by his uncle’s new romance at the age 78. Filming “The Age of Love” was, he writes on the documentary’s Web site, “a unique chance to discover how age affects our desire to start over, to be held once again in someone’s arms, to seek new companionship and affection.”

It was also a chance to see which dating behaviors work in later life and which don’t. We checked in with Loring and got some of his best tips for seniors re-entering the dating scene. Here’s what he had to say:    Continue Reading

by Annemarie A. Smith, 3.27.2015

MOVE ASIDE MILLENNIALS—THERE ARE SOME NEW SPEED DATERS IN TOWN, and they are senior citizens. Some of the town’s older residents are participating in the nationwide dating trend that is coming to the Enfield Senior Center on Thursday, April 9, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Speed dating is a way of meeting a potential date through one-on-one conversations of just a few minutes. After each date, participants indicate on a slip of paper whether they would like to meet up with that person again. At the end of the event, everyone is told of their matches.

Susan Lather, director of the senior center, was inspired to organize a speed-dating event after 150 Enfield residents attended the center’s March 5 screening of “The Age of Love.”    Continue Reading

WE WERE HONORED AND EXCITED TO PRESENT THE AGE OF LOVE at the American Society on Aging’s 2015 national convention in Chicago this spring.

Over 150 ‘healthy aging’ professionals participated in our post-screening discussion—moderated with Maripat Gallas of COAW—on ways to utilize the film. Among the suggestions were:

• inter-generational programming and discussion
• university gerontology and social work seminars
• staff training for senior residential communities
• entertainment and empowerment for older audiences
• psychology, sexuality and family counseling for seniors
• secondary school curricula, to start changing younger generations’ attitudes on aging

We look forward to partnering with the many groups who asked to utilize TAOL to support the hearts and emotional needs of older adults nationwide.

 

by Ina Jaffe, National Desk, 3.5.2015

THE IDEA OF SPEED DATING FOR PEOPLE OVER 70 can evoke laughs from anyone who’s younger, along with reactions from “how cute” to “how silly” to “how gross.” And while the documentary The Age of Love does have plenty of ha-ha moments, most of the time its subjects are reflecting on a need for intimacy that never seems to die.

“I want that guy that — when I’m doing dishes — will come up behind me and nuzzle my neck and give me a hug,” says Donna Capuano, one of the women featured in the film. “I want that guy that will pick up the phone and call me during the day just because he’s thinking of me. That’s who I am.”

So why not try speed dating? At an Italian restaurant near Rochester, N.Y., 15 women and 15 men ages 70 to 90 met to judge and be judged, for five minutes at a time.    Continue Reading