Sundance Film Festival alumnus Sam Green began his documentary, “The Oldest Person in the World,” out of simple curiosity about why people are fascinated with the record holders. Instead, what ensued is a 10-year odyssey exploring mortality, fate and the passage of time.

Green started filming on July 7, 2015, in Brooklyn, New York. At that time, the oldest person in the world was 116-year-old Susannah “Miss Susie” Mushatt Jones. Green spent the day filming Miss Susie and her 86-year-old niece, Lavilla. Although Miss Susie mostly remained in a trance-like sleep, Green recalled the interview as one of the most inspiring he’d ever done and said the profound display of love and care somehow changed him.

The documentary’s focus eventually shifted, with Green exploring deeper themes about the mystery of life and death as he spent the next decade filming the seven other oldest people in the world. 

“Why does this resonate with us in this strange way? And what does it mean? And how do we navigate through life with all these big mysteries? Nobody knows how long they’re going to live. Could it end tomorrow? Could you be 116 years old? Nobody knows,” he said.

Green recognized audiences might be bored watching a 90-minute film where (spoiler alert?) the main characters die. He even considered including scenes from the 1993 film “Groundhog Day” to show the repetitive narrative of life one day after another, but felt there needed to be a positive narrative.

So, he crafted a documentary focused on each supercentenarian while weaving larger concepts to keep people in their seats.

“My first take on the movie was that I’ll just film each person and make a little portrait, and that’ll be it. But after a while, it gets old, and you’re just like ‘Not another one.’ It sort of becomes this relentless thing,” Green said.

Part of the storytelling process involved intertwining moments from Green’s personal life — the birth of his son, the death of his younger brother, a serious illness and conversations with his 92-year-old mother — which served as touchstones in the cycle of life and as a litmus test for the passing years. Green said it was challenging to share certain details, but a team of editors helped him decide how much information to share.

The effect accentuates “the randomness of fate and the joy and profound human experience of being alive.” 

Green started editing “The Oldest Person in the World” early into filming and worked on it continuously over the 10 years to maintain a chronological structure. There are also moments where he breaks the fourth wall to address the documentary’s conventions and engage with the audience directly. The final version blends vulnerability, humor and philosophical reflection with Green’s signature storytelling.

Green acquiesced that most of the interviews were happenstance. The first woman filmed, Miss Susie, was asleep the whole time, while the last, Ethel Caterham — who still holds the title for Oldest Person in the World at 116 as of Tuesday — was among the most cogent. 

They also vary in what their “secret” is to living a long life. Sister André, a French nun who lived to be 118, declared there is no secret because God decides. Her rival, Kane Tanaka, said it doesn’t help to dwell on negative things and that regret isn’t helpful. One of the only similarities between the record holders Green interviewed is that they’re all women.

He experienced a particularly powerful moment with the documentary’s second subject, Emma Morano, who was the world’s oldest living person from May 2016 to April 2017. Morano, who was Italian, became confused at one point during filming, and Green was unsure how to comfort her without the translator in the room. He went over to the woman, and they began caressing each other’s hands and staring into each other’s eyes. 

In most circumstances, Green said, holding hands with a stranger and making intense eye contact would be uncomfortable — but this was an oddly magical experience. 

While society is preoccupied with the oldest people in the world, Green realized the obsession with longevity is tied to human discomfort surrounding mortality. He raises questions throughout the film about whether he’ll live to be old himself. Such thoughts can either keep someone up at night or help them realize each moment is precious.

“I think part of the fascination with the oldest person in the world is it’s like the flip side of the fear of death. I think if we were a little … less freaked out by death, we would probably be less fascinated by it,” Green said.

The director concedes “The Oldest Person in the World” is a never-ending project. Green wrapped filming on July 7, 2025, for the first part of the documentary that premiered at the film festival on Friday. His idea is to continue filming the oldest person in the world, or a similar anthology series, for the rest of his life, eventually passing the legacy on to his son and his son’s future children.

Green’s advice on living fully is first, not to listen to him, and second, to reach a point of appreciation each moment for yourself.

“Every day, you wake up, and you’re healthy and able to do things and living a pretty great life is a miracle,” he said. “It’s good to enjoy it.”

‘The Oldest Person in the World’ in-person screenings

• 11:30 a.m., Jan. 30, Library Center Theatre
• 9:40 a.m., Jan. 31, Megaplex Redstone

The post ‘The Oldest Person in the World’ documents the mystery of life at Sundance appeared first on Park Record.

Director Sharon Liese said it’s not uncommon to see national articles about attempts to silence the press or restrict free speech these days. But when such news happened in her backyard, the documentary filmmaker knew she had to pursue the story.

“SEIZED” is the culmination of Liese’s time in Marion County, Kansas, where she investigates the August 2023 police raid on the community’s newspaper, the Marion County Record. The feature-length documentary examines decades of tensions leading up to the raid and the subsequent events that thrust the small town into the national spotlight.

The documentary starts by providing background on the raid, which was led by the Marion Police Department on the Marion County Record and the home of its editor and publisher, Eric Meyer. Meyer’s 98-year-old mother was also at the residence when it was searched, and she died shortly after. 

Viewers watch as the events unfold “in real time,” using body-cam and surveillance footage paired with interviews featuring a unique cast of characters who help bring humor and nuance to the documentary. 

After all, Liese said “SEIZED” isn’t just about freedom of the press: It’s about humanity.

“I hope people have the same experience that I did when I kind of uncovered everything that was going on because, at first, it seemed like this egregious attack on the First Amendment and the Fourth Amendment and the Privacy Protection Act. And while it is that it is, still is, it’s more than that,” Liese explained. “It’s about small towns. It’s about tension between a community and its newspaper, and it’s also about tensions between people. … Everyone can relate to something like what people were feeling in this film, whether it’s alienation from other people, frustration at not being heard.”

Liese returned to the Sundance Film Festival with “SEIZED,” which premiered on Sunday, following the debut of her 2023 Sundance short documentary, “PARKER.”

“SEIZED” stands out among Liese’s other works because the story was already in the spotlight. Typically, she finds interesting people and centers a topic around them in an intimate setting — building the story from the inside out. For example, “PARKER” is about three generations of a Black Kansas City family choosing their own last name. 

Still, Liese was curious about what was happening in Marion County — about a two-hour drive from her home in Overland Park, Kansas. So, she went.

Liese spent a long time in the community, working to build trust with its residents and draw out interesting, colorful characters.

“You have to earn people’s trust, and our big challenge was earning the trust of the people who did not like the newspaper,” she said. “Those people at first thought that we were hired by the Marion County Record to do this documentary. They didn’t want to talk to us, but they would always just throw in when we were filming on the street, ‘There’s another side to the story.’” 

As a filmmaker, Liese said she thrives on curiosity. This led her to consider why some town residents were so upset at the local paper and what it was about this dynamic that led to the crossroads.

It took Liese about a year to earn a sit-down with the mayor, which was a pivotal moment for the filmmaking process. He saw that the documentarians were interested in hearing what he had to say and helped pave the way in reducing others’ skepticism. 

“SEIZED” takes a people-first approach, creating an organic evolution in the film’s narrative and causing sympathies to shift “moment to moment.” 

The documentary isn’t a history lesson on the raid or the ethics of journalism, but rather addresses universal human experiences and tension between the press, government and small-town residents. “SEIZED” explores the purpose of local news as well as broader questions about community and accountability. 

Liese said everyone has blind spots, and the film is intended to make people think about their own. She thinks viewers will go into “SEIZED” expecting it to be one thing and leave realizing it’s something different. 

“I think that the film, I hope, probably raises more questions than it answers,” Liese said. “But I do think it’s important to ask ourselves, ‘What is the purpose of a local newspaper?’ and ‘What kind of relationship should the newspaper have with its readers and its community?’ and ‘Is there a point where newspapers might go too far, or journalism may go too far?’”

‘SEIZED’ in-person screenings

• 9:30 p.m., Jan. 27, Broadway Center Cinemas, Salt Lake City
• 8:30 a.m., Jan. 29, Library Center Theatre
• 2:30 p.m., Jan. 31, Megaplex Redstone

Online

• 8 a.m., Jan. 29-11:55 p.m., Feb. 1

The post ‘SEIZED’ raises questions about small-town journalism at Sundance appeared first on Park Record.

An immersive, meditative melody plays over a mosaic of mossy greens, muddy browns and brilliant blues of the Batture — a community on the edge of the Mississippi River  — as a steady, wise voice breaks the sound: “Look how beautiful it is, yeah. Look. Lovely day.”

The man, who isn’t named until the credits, admires the world outside his home with his pet bird, Baby, resting on his hand. 

Alexandra Kern, the director of “Some Kind of Refuge,” which premiered as part of the Sundance Film Festival short film program on Saturday, said the opening sequence is intended to show the slower Southern pace of life. But it’s also reflective of the first time she met Jules Cote, when he opened his home to her.

Cote is one of the oldest residents in the Batture, a 200-year-old, seasonally flooded settlement outside the levees in New Orleans. Only nine homes remain on a nearly 6-mile stretch that once held hundreds. The Batture is considered an outsider settlement, “where survival depends on resourcefulness and a deep respect for nature.”

Kern is from New Orleans, but she hadn’t heard about the Batture until she met producer Colin Cadarette at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Cadarette, meanwhile, became curious about the community after reading “They Called Us River Rats: The Last Batture Settlement of New Orleans” by Macon Fry, who is also featured in the documentary.

Cadarette reached out to Kern after watching another short she made and introduced her to the book — and to the Batture. Soon, the pair was committed to creating their own cinematic archive of the community.

“Some Kind of Refuge” isn’t an adaptation of Fry’s book. Rather, it’s an exploration into the unique lives of Cote and Fry and what it means for the men to live “outside the constraints of modern society.” Kern said she wanted to explore the modern fantasy of escaping society while also documenting the history of the Batture, which she said is under threat from climate change, gentrification and greed.

The director knocked on doors before filming started, meeting with all of the Batture’s residents. What became clear to Kern was the community’s profound wisdom and way of life that is disappearing from the world. She felt an instinctual pull to the project, with the story unfolding to her as she spent more time in the Batture, which the crew affectionately called “Swamp Narnia.”

“Our film became a way to preserve and to honor and to speak on those values in a way that could be a lasting archive,” Kern said. “We really wanted to make something that could really withstand the rest of time and be a visual and audio archive of this community and this way of life that will probably not exist one day.”

Fry and Cote emerged as the documentary’s central subjects because of their unique philosophies regarding fear, peace and living on the edge. Their personal stories — Fry is an author who has chronicled the Batture’s history and the struggle against development, while Cote is an artist who recently lost his wife and is developing a closer relationship with God — embody the film’s central themes of loss, freedom, hope and resilience.

“Some Kind of Refuge” is a meditation on fear as the enemy of living, as told through the residents’ experiences, while also reflecting on how nature shapes life in the Batture and what it means to live with yourself.

With a short, 16-minute runtime, there was a lot left on the cutting room floor. Cadarette said the team tried to treat “Some Kind of Refuge” like an American poem by taking an intentional, intimate approach with each shot and sound bite. 

Kern said she wanted audiences to see themselves in the characters and question, “How do I want to live my life?” and wonder what it means to be a good neighbor and to experience reciprocity with the land. To her, the film is for younger generations searching for a deeper connection to nature and themselves. 

“I think that was a big thing that we wanted audiences to walk away with is how can people sort of see themselves, whether it’s an environment like this, or on their own; How can they find an inner refuge, no matter really, what’s happening around them,” Kern said. 

For her, making the film revealed that the simplest lessons matter the most.

“The Batture folks teach us an authentic way to be, one that rests not on material possessions but on genuine fulfillment that comes from self-actualization, surrender and the positive impact you have on your community,” she said. 

Short Film Program 3 in-person screenings

• 9:15 p.m., Jan. 28, Broadway Centre Cinemas, Salt Lake City
• 6:15 p.m., Feb. 1, Holiday Village Cinemas

Online

• 8 a.m., Jan. 29-11:55 p.m., Feb. 1

The post Sundance short documentary explores nature, fear and finding ‘Some Kind of Refuge’ appeared first on Park Record.