Director's Statement

The idea for SUNSET STORY was sparked by a New York Times article that profiled a retirement home in Los Angeles for aged lefties called Sunset Hall. In it there was a confluence of several things I was interested in: issues of aging, the history of the American left and contemporary activism. Though I originally intended to make a portrait of this place, SUNSET STORY became a film about the passionate friendship between two of its residents. Lucille and Irja are two extraordinary women who have lived ordinary lives.

Our culture tends to discard, infantilize, and turn away from the elderly. We tend to think of life in a nursing home as being unremittingly bleak. I wanted SUNSET STORY to bring the audience inside the experience of being old and to reveal a richer, truer picture of later life. Lucille and Irja's story is not an unusual one; neither Lucille nor Irja is widely known for anything they have done in their lives. However, these are two women who experience later life with uncommon fullness, dignity and humor. They exemplify the beauty and rewards of living life with vitality up until the very end. My collaborators and I were lucky to find such a dynamic duo.

Stylistically, I wanted the documentary to have the feeling of a character-driven narrative film. I hoped to reveal the pace and atmosphere of life at Sunset Hall through the accrual of small details: a centenarian resident smoking his pipe and basking in the sun; a resident patiently waiting for her visitor by the front gate; an aide trying to coax a disoriented resident back to her room in the middle of the night. I tried to tell the main story of the film -- that of Lucille and Irja's friendship ?ɬ± as intimately as possible, exploring the drama of their lives through a patient, observant camera. Lucille and Irja's spirit, humor, and love for each other made that part of the filmmaking effortless.