We’ve all heard the phrase, ‘respect your elders”, yet how often do we have the chance to ask, and listen, to our grandparents’ wisdom? In Lives Well Lived, filmmaker Sky Bergman acquires a collective of 3,000 years of life experience to show that growing old doesn’t mean growing silent. See lives-well-lived.com .
How did you select who to interview?
The project began with my grandmother. When she was about to turn 99 years-old she was still going to the gym. It was phenomenal to see the energy she exuded at her age so I thought I should film her and ask for a few words of wisdom. After I put together the video of her at the gym, it inspired me to find other people out there who were over the age of 75, living life to the fullest. I sent out an email to about 1000 people and asked if they had someone in their lives that they wanted to nominate for the project. At that point I had no idea that it would become a feature-length film. I realized that it was important tell as many different stories as I could; so I sought out people that demonstrated a spectrum of experiences that would be relevant and inspiring to younger generations.