Some Kind of Heaven
Director: Lance Oppenheim Run Time: 81 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 2021
Country: United States
Language: English, closed captions available
Presented in the Virtual Screening Room in partnership with Magnolia Pictures
“A solid feature debut from a bright young filmmaker who, despite his age, is able to expand our understanding of the complicated lives of older Americans.”
– Beandrea July, Hollywood Reporter
About the film:
Official Selection of Sundance Film Festival 2020
Some Kind of Heaven explores life inside America’s largest retirement community—the massive, self-contained utopia in Central Florida called The Villages. While most of the residents seem to be blissfully living out their golden years in this self-described “Disneyworld for Retirees,” the film focuses on those who struggle to find fulfillment in the prepackaged paradise.
About the filmmaker:
Feature-length debut for acclaimed documentary director Lance Oppenheim, who began crafting critically acclaimed short films as a high school student in Fort Lauderdale. His short documentary Quicksand was selected by PBS to air as part of their “Local, USA” series in 2013. The film featured his grandfather, who suffered from Alzheimer’s.
While studying Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard, Oppenheim became the youngest contributor to The New York Times Op-Docs with Long Term Parking, No Jail Time: The Movie, and The Happiest Guy in the World, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2018.
He was featured as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2019, and his films have been featured at the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian, and film festivals around the world. He became the first Sundance Ignite Fellow to premiere a feature at the Sundance Film Festival with Some Kind of Heaven. The film was produced by Darren Aronofsky and The New York Times as one of their first feature-length productions.
Oppenheim grew up hearing tales of life in The Villages and was determined to uncover the community’s secrets for himself. Read about his experience in an interview by Pat Saperstein for Variety.
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