New doco proves over-60s are the real style-setters
<p>Examining the lives of seven uber-fabulous over-60 New Yorkers whose eclectic personal style and vital spirit guides their approach to ageing, this already internationally acclaimed film is a sellout.</p><p>Based on the popular blog – <a href="http://advancedstyle.blogspot.com.au" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Advance Style</strong></span></a> – byAri Seth Cohen who has been blogging his photos of stylish older women since 2008, he teamed up with filmmaker Lina Plioplyte to turn the blog into a documentary.</p><p>Capturing the spirit of women aged between 62 and 95, <a href="http://advancedstylefilm.com" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><em>Advanced Style</em></strong></span></a> screened to sellout audiences at the Melbourne International Film Festival in August, premiered in New York on September 26 and was released at select cinemas in Australia on October 2 (see details below).</p><p>Mr Cohen started photographing stylishly dressed when he moved to New York City. "It was all my grandmother's fault," he laughs. "She was just this wonderful, giving, fashionable, interesting woman."</p><p>Growing up in sunny California, Mr Cohen's says his grandmother was his best friend with whom he loved to spend time with going through her old scrap books and watching old movies together. "I learned everything from her, I learned about aesthetics, I learned how to be a good person."</p><p>The blogger’s grandmother was also the one who encouraged him to move to the big apple. "If you want to be creative, move to New York," he says. So in 2008 he took that advice and it wasn’t long before he encountered a number of "incredibly dressed, eccentric, outrageous, classic" older people on the streets of New York. "I started taking their photos and I started the blog."</p><p>It was around that time that he met filmmaker, Lina Plioplyte, in a coffee shop, who had also only recently moved to New York City.</p><p>“Lina Plioplyte, director of the film, and I met six years ago when I first moved to NYC,” Mr Cohen explains, continuing, “She was working at a coffee shop and we admired one another's crazy mix of paisley and tropical patterns and I asked if we could be friends. I told her that I wanted to start a blog where I photographed some of the most stylish, vital, and interesting older people in New York and she told me that she was just about to start a position at a fashion magazine making videos. Lina and I ran into each other about a month later at a gallery. She had been seeing my posts on Advanced Style and asked if she could make a few videos of the ladies for my blog. We started with Debra Rapoport and interviewed her about her style. From there we moved on to Tziporah and Ilona and quickly realized that these videos were about much more than just style. The ladies began to open up to us and share their lives and secrets to their incredible vitality. Lina and I became so captivated by their stories that we couldn't stop filming.”</p><p>Mr Cohen said the women he features in his photographs serve as an inspiration for people who want to feel good about themselves. "The film, the blog, my book, they're really about style - personal style and lifestyle," he told 774 ABC Melbourne's Rafael Epstein. "These women dare to be bold but that's their personal style. It's really about how they live their lives."</p><p>Drawing a distinction between style, which is personal, and the global fashion industry, Mr Cohen thinks the "The fashion world is scary," he reveals. "It doesn't include older people and it doesn't include people of different weights, and it doesn't include people of different races.”</p><p>Lithuanian born, Ms Plioplyte, who started working on this film at 25, said American culture is "all about anti-ageing, firming, tightening, thinner, younger," she says. When she began work on the doco she revealed that she’d "already started worrying about getting older," but wonderfully, the women in the documentary became mentors for her. "These women were just flaunting their styles and not hiding at all," she smiles.</p><p>Interestingly, while the film is definitely a celebration of the women it features, it’s not a picture of sunshine and roses. "It was really important not to make only a purely positive film," said Ms Plioplyte. And then Mr Cohen explains that the women in the film were competitive. "If Lina didn't show that I don't think the audience would respond to the film as being honest," he said.</p><p>The women in the film have a vain side too and that shows, but it is that pride that makes them so vital in their old age. "That self confidence shows in the way that they present themselves to the world."</p><p>Despite the women's individual eccentricities, Mr Cohen hopes the women in the film are as inspirational to other people as his grandmother was to him. "It's really all in memory of her," said Mr Cohen. "The hope and the goal of the blog is to really help people embrace their age and see that there's so much to life in your 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 100s."</p><p><em><strong>Now showing in select cinemas in Australia</strong></em></p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.cinemanova.com.au/">Cinema Nova</a></strong></span>, Melbourne</p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.palacecinemas.com.au/">Kino Cinema</a></strong></span>, Melbourne
</p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.palacecinemas.com.au/">Palace Brighton Bay</a></strong></span>, Melbourne
</p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.palacecinemas.com.au/">Palace Como</a></strong></span>, Melbourne
</p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.orpheum.com.au/">Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace</a></strong></span>, Sydney
</p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.palacecinemas.com.au/">Palace Norton Street</a></strong></span>, Sydney
</p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.palacecinemas.com.au/">Palace Verona Cinemas</a></strong></span>, Sydney
</p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.lunapalace.com.au/">Luna Palace Windsor</a></strong></span>, Perth
</p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.palacecinemas.com.au/">Palace Electric</a></strong></span>, Canberra
</p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.palacecinemas.com.au/">Palace Centro</a></strong></span>, Brisbane
</p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.eldorado8.com/">Regal Twin Cinemas</a>,</strong></span> Brisbane
</p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.palacenova.com/">Palace Nova Eastend</a></strong></span>, Adelaide
</p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.statecinema.com.au/">State Cinema</a></strong></span>, Hobart</p>
