Director: Sam Green
Stars: Ann Blackwell, Violet Brown, Genia Carter
Synopsis: A ten-year worldwide exploration tracks successive holders of the oldest living person title. A study of longevity transforms into reflection on time’s flow, fate’s unpredictability, and the joy of human existence.
We have become increasingly obsessed with living longer. From billionaires spending fortunes trying to slow the aging process to documentaries investigating the science behind so-called superagers, the desire to extend our time on Earth has become a fascinating cultural obsession. Netflix’s Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever followed entrepreneur Bryan Johnson’s extreme attempts to defy aging, while Michael Mosley: Secrets of the Superagers explored the habits and science behind people who appear to age remarkably well. Sam Green’s The Oldest Person in the World approaches the same fascination from a completely different direction. Rather than asking how we might live longer, it asks what it actually means to have lived a very long life.
There is something wonderfully simple about the concept. Someone becomes the oldest person in the world, holds the title for a while (the smallest amount of time being four days), and eventually someone else takes their place. The record sounds permanent until you remember that it isn’t. Green’s decade-long documentary follows the ever-changing record holders of the title of oldest living person. It is an immediately intriguing premise, but what starts as a fascination with extraordinary age gradually becomes something much more personal and unexpectedly moving. Green travels across the world to meet each new record holder, while his own life continues to change in the background.
Everyone interviewed has stories, memories, personalities, and very different experiences. Some of the most enjoyable moments come from simply watching Green spend time with them, sharing something unspoken. It also prevents the film from becoming another documentary promising the secret to a longer life. No miracle diet or revolutionary exercise routine is waiting at the end of this journey. Instead, Green finds something considerably more complicated. Longevity appears to be shaped by circumstance, genetics, luck, relationships and countless factors that no individual can entirely control. But, seen as though we all are interested in how people can live to 117, some people say their “secret” to a long life is eating three raw eggs a day, staying away from men, being inspired, and then no secrets, just that God decides when it’s your time to go.
For a documentary centered on the world’s oldest living people, death is inevitably present throughout The Oldest Person in the World. Every new record holder is also a reminder that the record will eventually pass to somebody else. Green doesn’t shy away from that uncomfortable reality. There is a lovely balance between recognizing the inevitability of death and celebrating the privilege of being alive. I would be lying/not doing a service to this documentary film if I don’t say that it made me think about my own mortality and how comfortable I am with ever making this age. This documentary will make you think about age, death and how one will die. So if that’s uncomfortable for you, maybe watch something else instead.
Visually, the documentary has a gentle, observational quality that suits its subject. There is no need for manufactured drama. The passage of time provides all the drama Green needs. The changing faces of the film’s subjects become a visual representation of the fleeting nature of existence. Green includes home videos of his son growing up, time with his brother, and stills from his life changing and growing as he makes this film. He discusses why he’s making it, and how he’s felt across the process. It does feel like a personal journey he’s taking – especially when he faces death in his family and battles cancer.
Perhaps the most ambitious aspect of the project is that Green doesn’t intend for it to end here. He and his team plan to continue filming the oldest person in the world for the rest of their lives, creating a new film every decade. The idea of turning it into an evolving “living film” is both fascinating and poignant. Nobody knows who will hold the title in ten years, or what the filmmakers’ own lives will look like by then.
The Oldest Person in the World encourages a much simpler appreciation of time. There is humor, sadness, curiosity and plenty of humanity here, but above all there is a sense that every life, regardless of its length, is worth paying attention to. After watching it, the question isn’t really how long we might live. It is what we do with the years we have. And that makes The Oldest Person in the World a surprisingly life-affirming film about the one thing none of us can stop: time.
