First of all thank you so much to everyone who took the time to come and see the film and to send feedback. It’s wonderful to be able to hear directly from people what they thought of the film and please do contact me again if you'd like to know more. Below I’ve tried to answer the questions and suggestions that were made in the order I received them but some do overlap so you may find answers to other questions useful also. You can also read more about the film on http://www.timeoftheirlives.com/ as well as see video and audio clips and read the biographies of Hetty, Rose and Alison.
Is the home selective?
The Mary Fielding Guild is a not for profit organisation which is run by a voluntary committee on behalf of the charity which employs the care and office staff. The only ‘entry‘ criterion as such, is that you have to be physically active enough when you first move in, to be able to walk from your room to the dining room where everyone usually has lunch together. Of course during your stay, you may become less able physically, in which case food is brought to you in your room if necessary and during the time that I was filming there were in fact two residents who were entirely bed-ridden. The real qualification for entry though is whether you like the place and it likes you. Most people come to stay for a couple of weeks trial before they make the final decision to move in, just to see if they like it and if they feel they fit in. If they do and the residents feel the same, then they can. The priority for the Guild is to keep the atmosphere they have established over such a long time and not to disrupt that for the residents who are already there. This is also why if a resident becomes demented in such a way that means they start to be aggressive and affect the lives of others, they have to leave – remember this is a care home not a nursing home, even though many of the care staff are qualified nurses. But for those who amy lose their memory or easily become confused, there’s no reason why they would be asked to leave, in fact usually the Guild tries very hard to keep those residents from being moved to a strange place at a time in their lives when change can be very distressing.
But you are right in saying that most of the residents are quite middle class – Highgate is a ‘nice’ part of London and most, but by no means all, of the residents have previously lived locally. The Guild is trying very hard, however, to make sure that anyone who ‘fits in’ and wants to live there is able to do so regardless of whether or not they can personally afford it. Currently the cost is round about £500/week (which is similar to the price of a local authority home) and most residents have sold a house in order to fund living there. But there are also two bursaries available and a trust fund has recently been established which is raising money to provide more bursaries in the effort to make sure it is not only those who can afford it who can live there.
Thank you for your kind words too, they are always very nice to hear.
Why can’t it be done elsewhere? / dumbing down
Precisely my question too. This isn’t rocket science, it’s about the word ‘care’ which includes thinking about how people feel and what they want and making that a fundamental part of how the place is organised. As you saw in the film, the residents are able to contribute their opinions about all sorts of things from where they sit at lunchtime to what books are available in the library to what food is served, what outings will be planned and so on. It just means treating people like people and assuming that they have the same interests in their lives and those of the people around them as they did when they were younger – or that they are all the same either. It’s about basic respect and that’s what lies at the heart of how the staff and residents are treated and how they are with each other. This also relates to the question about dumbing-down – I think this happens as soon as people are perceived as ‘old’, regardless of what social class or background they come from. We live in a deeply ageist society and it really has to change. But what’s also crucially important about the Guild, I think, is that the business is not run for profit. All the money is put back into the organisation for the benefit of residents and staff.
Institutions which deal in risk-taking
It’s nice that this comment gives me the opportunity to mention Storyville at BBC4 because without them I think I would have been making the film in my bedroom. Working with them was a dream; they understood right from the first conversation - this was February 2008 - how I wanted the film to feel and what had drawn me to these particular people. It's so refreshing to feel that your approach and your instincts are genuinely valued and that there isn't pressure to conform to some agenda or ‘house style’. This is partly because Nick Fraser and Jo Lapping are genuinely interested not only in what filmmakers have to say but in how they want to say it, in the filmmaking craft. For example, no one ever tried to persuade me to use commentary, as soon as I said the film wouldn't need it, that was fine – whereas most commissioners would insist on it.
But because of their increasingly limited budgets, Storyville can only finance to a certain level - in our case about 50% - so we had the choice of agreeing to deliver on what they were offering, which meant subsidising the project ourselves but getting on with making it, or delaying until we could secure the rest of the money. Well when two of your key subjects are 101 and 102, you don't hang about so Hilary (the producer) and I decided to work for a tiny fee and get on with it. Then the UK Film Council came in with money to cover editing a slightly longer festival cut – which is the one you will have seen and actually the version I am most pleased with.
But you’re right, all parties took a risk, there’s never a guarantee that a film will make it’s money back or that you can make a living making this kind of film. But I do think it’s vital that all of us who love watching the kinds of films that tell us something about what it is to be someone other than ourselves, do whatever we can to ensure they keep getting made and seen. UK TV is under real threat these days, particularly the BBC, and I for one would hate to see it go the way of so many commercial channels.
Formal introduction
I’m not sure if this suggestion relates to the film itself or to the screening situation in which you saw it but I’d be happy to talk about the sounds scape etc if you tell me a bit more.
Why did we see shots of people doing odd jobs, interviews with managers, house-keeping staff, what did it add to the story?
What I was trying to do was to draw a portrait of the home as a place to live, mainly through the lives of these three particular residents but also giving some context about the feel of the Guild. I especially wanted to get across something of the relationship between the staff and the residents which I think is so important to the quality of the residents’ lives. And also that, in some ways, the life of the house is not unlike the life of the people within it: things wear out and have to be mended or maintained or nurtured back into full bloom – it’s all a cyclical process.
A casual meander
I hope the casual meander wasn’t too misleading! I like stories and do think of myself as a storyteller but in this instance I didn't want to force these very individual people into a prescribed, three act-type structure. As I said earlier, it’s a portrait rather than a commanding narrative because I wanted us to relate it to our own experience and understanding of what it is to get older, or to that of people we know. In other words, I wanted to ensure we have the space to reflect on what is at times deeply philosophical and to accumulate what we learn about their perspectives on life
Men didn’t seem to have much to say
True, this is partly because there were only three of them there at the time of filming and only one who was really happy about being filmed – the tall, elegant man you see who loved the garden so much. He died, sadly, just before the film was finished at the age of 99 and although I got to know him, he was a very private and quiet man who loved to be in company but preferred to hear the sound of other voices rather than his own. So yes, I agree, the men are rather quiet but it wasn’t intentional on my part, it’s just how it happened.
Less afraid of being old
I mentioned that you had said this to Hetty when I last saw her and she was so thrilled. She was always a bit anxious not to come across as if she thought she was a celebrity (so many of that generation loath the concept of ‘celebrity’ - understandably in my opinion) and her motivation for doing the film was exactly that – to show people that old age didn't have to be feared and that it could be a productive and happy time of life. So it gave her great pleasure to think someone had taken that from the film. Thank you for letting us know.
Hetty is now 104 and still going, though not quite so strongly. Last October she walked three and a half miles for Oxfam and raised £1,500. She still says she wants to die but frankly I think she’s too busy.
Jocelyn Cammack
jocelyncammack@blueyonder.co.uk
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