press kit - Lives Well Lived

PRESS KIT
Sky Bergman, Producer
(805) 215-8684
[email protected]
lives-well-lived.com
Contents
ABOUT THE FILM................................................................... Page 3
DIRECTOR BIO....................................................................... Page 4
FILM CREDITS........................................................................ Page 5
FILM STILLS............................................................................ Page 6-9
OUR STARS............................................................................. Page 10-14
“My body and my mind think I am 39 years
old and won’t accept the fact that I am 90!
My secret to a happy life is to feel like I have
helped other people.”
— Lou Goodman, age 90
“. . . I would have thought about nothing being the
same forever. You can get in and out of things a
little easier if you know that nothing is permanent,
that you’re not going to be there forever.”
— Linnaea Phillips, age 81
“I love photography, I love beauty, and to
be able to do that every day. . .what more
could someone want?”
— Jesse Alexander, age 85
lives-well-lived.com
ABOUT THE FILM
What is a life well lived? California filmmaker and award-winning photographer Sky Bergman
asked this question of women and men, aged 75-100, across the country. In fact, for the
last two years, Sky and her crew have interviewed more than 40 people about their ideas
on living meaningful, engaged and fulfilled lives; they received some incredible answers.
All are captured in the inspiring documentary film, Lives Well Lived, which is scheduled to
premiere this summer 2015.
The full-length feature film includes interviews with World War II survivors, artists, teachers,
doctors, and yoga instructors. Though each person has a unique perspective on what
defines a life well lived, all participants share a desire to live to the fullest at every age. Ms.
Bergman was inspired by her 100-year-old Italian grandmother, Evelyn Ricciuti, to make the
film. What started as a series of video clips of Bergman’s grandma working out at the gym
or making the perfect marinara sauce turned into a passion for talking to people throughout
the country about the most valuable lessons of their lives. The result is a film that focuses
on women and men who are aging with dignity, grace, humor, energy and purpose.
KEY POINTS
• Wisdom of aging.
• Secrets: life lessons, desires, passions, and purpose.
• A life well lived: what is it?
• Courage: everyday people overcoming incredible adversity.
• Our elders: their rich contributions and value.
• Humor and wit: powerfully inspiring, funny, and heart-warming.
• Longevity: living to your full potential at any age.
CONNECTION
• Movie Site: http://lives-well-lived.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liveswelllived?_rdr
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/liveswelllived
• BLOG/News: http://www.lives-well-lived.com/press.html
• Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/103859370
• Participation in Shared Stories Page: http://www.lives-well-lived.com/your-stories.html
TECHNICAL INFO
• Camera: Canon 5D Mark3
• Format: Color HD
• Length: 75 min
• Edited: Final Cut Pro
lives-well-lived.com
SKY BERGMAN
photographer and filmmaker
Sky Bergman with her 100 year old
Grandmother, Evelyn Ricciuti
Sky Bergman, Professor of Photography at Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo,
CA, is an accomplished and award-winning photographer and filmmaker. Her fine art work
is included in permanent collections at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Brooklyn
Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and the Bibliothèque
Nationale de France (National Library of France) in Paris. Her book, The Naked & The Nude:
Images from the Sculpture Series, includes an introduction by Hèléne Pinet, curator of
photography at the Rodin Museum in Paris. She has shot book covers for Random House
and Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc., and magazine spreads that appeared in Smithsonian,
Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel, Reader’s Digest, and Archaeology Odyssey.
Sky recently won an APA People’s Choice award for the video of her 100-year-old grandmother,
who inspired the Lives Well Lived film.
skybergman.com
lives-well-lived.com
film credits
produced and directed by
Sky Bergman
film editor
Randi Barros
associate producer
Catherine Trujillo
communication manager
Dana Carpenter
graphic design
Gayle Force
music
Café Musique
Justin Hooper
Matt Keating
transcriptions
Julie Sample
second shooters
Derek Fong
Kaori Funahashi
James Galt
Trevor Hooper
Betsy Knauss
Sara Tollefson
Ellen Williams
lives-well-lived.com
film stills
Marion Wolff at age 84
“The most influential in my life? My mother certainly. The holocaust had a terrific influence. I signed myself up for
the Kindertransport...my mother had to make a fairly fast decision...This is when I become emotional because I
never gave her the credit she should have had, for being so brave, as to let me go.”
Marion Wolff, is a central coast resident who survived World War II on the first Kindertransport out of Vienna,
Austria—a humanitarian effort that gave safe passage to almost 10,000 predominantly Jewish children to the United
Kingdom. Marion’s life has been filled with activism, not only as a member of Mothers for Peace, but also her public
outreach as an advocate of tolerance education.
© Copyright 2015 Lives Well Lived
|
[email protected]
|
lives-well-lived.com
Dr. Lou Tedone at Age 90
“I gave myself a nickname many many years ago: Lucky Louie. And the reason is that I have been lucky in love and
in lucky life.
Happiness is a state of mind. You can be happy with what you have or miserable with what you don’t have. You
make the decision. I have always learned to be happy with what you have.”
© Copyright 2015 Lives Well Lived
|
[email protected]
|
lives-well-lived.com
Evelyn Ricciuti at age 100
“Try to enjoy life every minute of the day, because life is too short.” Evelyn Ricciuti on her cruise back from Italy,
celebrating her 100th birthday.
“My birthday is September 3rd, 1912, which makes me a 100 years old. The biggest things to happen to me in
my lifetime...when my mother became a citizen and when I voted for the first time in my life at eighteen years old.”
© Copyright 2015 Lives Well Lived
|
[email protected]
|
lives-well-lived.com
Blanche Brown at age 78
“I think the Civil Rights movement was a big thing for me. I would be on the picket lines all the time. The first sit-in that was
done, was actually started by me and a friend of mine. I went to a house [that was for sale] because it was open and I just
wanted to have somebody talk to me about the house and I wasn’t really looking for a place to live. I just wanted to see it.
When we walked in, all the salesmen ran out through the garage. So we decided we are just going to sit here.
I called my husband and I said, this is what happened, what do we do? He said, just stay there and see what happens. So
they [the salesmen] sent a black janitor in to tell us that the house was closed. The next day my husband [Willie Brown]
who was then an aspiring lawyer and soon to be a legislator—brought friends with us and a newspaper reporter [back to
the house]. And that was the first sit-in in San Francisco—the first picket line in San Francisco about the housing situation
where they did not want blacks in their housing development.”
© Copyright 2015 Lives Well Lived
|
[email protected]
|
lives-well-lived.com
Joe Stevens at Age 78
“...One of my favorite songs is ‘Enjoy Yourself, It’s Later Than You Think.’ The years go by really quickly, so—enjoy it
while you’re still in the pink...”
© Copyright 2015 Lives Well Lived
|
[email protected]
|
lives-well-lived.com
Santi Visalli, at age 81
“I tell my doctor all the time...I’d like to die healthy because that’s the best way to go. You know, an old Indian chief
once said, ‘We’ll be remembered by the tracks that we leave behind.’ That’s what I would like—to go healthy and
leave good tracks.”
© Copyright 2015 Lives Well Lived
|
[email protected]
|
lives-well-lived.com
Evy Justesen, at age 81
“What is really important in life is taking chances, risking, facing new situations, learning new skills and not getting in
a rut. The attitude you have about life is really the only thing you have control over, and that is what determines how
you are going to live your life.”
© Copyright 2015 Lives Well Lived
|
[email protected]
|
lives-well-lived.com
Botso Korisheli, at age 92
What do you wish younger people understood about life?
“The first thing I’d tell them is to be yourself.”
What do you look forward to?
“I look forward to the next hour, next day and no plans, I take what comes and absorb it as much as I can, mentally,
physically, emotionally, visually, audibly. I drink it up.”
© Copyright 2015 Lives Well Lived
|
[email protected]
|
lives-well-lived.com
our stars
(In alphabetical order. Age is listed when filmed.)
Please contact [email protected] for any image requests.
William Abel, age 85 and ¾
Ciel Bergman, age 75
Doris Achterkirchen, age 97
Blanche Brown, age 78
Jesse Alexander , age 85
Emmy Cleaves, age 85
Herbert Bergman, age 72
Irene Devin, age 90
Barbara Dreyfuss, age 91
Lou Goodman, age 90
Brenda Edelson, age 75
Clive Ford Haworth, age 82
Dorothy Ellis, age 76
Terry Hertz, age 95
Barbara Gesino, age 75
Jules Hock, age 79
Evy Justesen, age 81
Ed Okun, age 82
Elinor Kogan, age 87
Linnaea Phillips, age 81
Botso Korisheli, age 92
Eugene Pozzebon, age 89
Georgia Lee, age 87
Evelyn Ricciuti, age 100
Ken Schwartz, age 88
Joan Tanner, age 78
Bob Sinsheimer, age 94
Dr. Lou Tedone, age 90
Joe Stevens, age 76
Dottie Thompson, age 81
Jesse Stone, age 84
Santi Visalli, age 81
Barbara J. Williams, age 85
Marion Wolff, age 84
Paul Wolff, age 84
Rachael Winn Yon, age 78
lives-well-lived.com
For More Information:
Sky Bergman, Producer and Director
(805) 215-8684
[email protected]
lives-well-lived.com