Young @ Heart

Aroview: A stirring, crowd-pleasing music doco for ages 9 to 99 that introduces a spritely senior citizen choir known as 'Young @ Heart' who are renowned for their lively performances and unique take on rock music classics.

Late-forty-something musical director Bob Cilman, steers the chorus through many of his favourite songs from his post-punk teenagehood (The Ramones, Talking Heads, The Clash et al) as well as a repertoire chosen for their ironic novelty twist when sung by a bunch of septo- and octogenerians ('Golden Years', 'Dancing in the Dark', etc.). Dir. Stephen Walker's TV-journo presence intrudes too much for this to be the jewel it could have been, but he has documentary gold in these wise and wonderful old people that are thrilled to be part of such a joyful and popular project, and much of the focus is where it counts - on the music itself - with much of it hilarious and more often than not, surprisingly glorious.

NZ International Film Festival 2008

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