Director's Statement

My life’s mission as a writer and filmmaker has always been to surface difficult, rarely discussed, painful feelings...and to do so with humor. I think there is powerful healing in people coming together to air their private, negative thoughts and emotions, and even to have a laugh. At the least, it’s less lonely.

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Second Best tells the story of Elliot (Joe Pantoliano) living with the disappointment of falling far short of his life’s aspirations, with little prospect of turning things around.

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Not Dead Yet, my fifth film, is in some ways a sequel to Second Best, but perhaps with more optimism. I’ve tried to give viewers insight into how seniors, from their late 60s into their 80s, deal with the reality of not being heard or seen. Many of my contemporaries use the word “invisible” to describe how they feel in the world. When I meet people out and about, at Starbucks, the dog park, etc., as I engage them in conversation, I notice their eyes glaze over. Peers report the same experience.

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My son, Nick, with whom I co-directed this film, is a well-known Springs painter. He reports that the artists who have influenced him the most did much of their best work during act two: Lucien Freud, Joan Mitchell, Rembrandt, Lee Krasner. After decades honing their craft, many artists’ work becomes more nuanced, subtle, and full of compassion. I definitely feel I am a deeper storyteller than I was as a younger man. Yet we live in a society drowning in ads that platform sex and youth. It is said ageism in America is linked to our economics. This is not necessarily universal; other cultures and different eras have placed value in the wisdom of “elders.” Our film explores this conflict between art and consumerism.

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In Not Dead Yet, we highlight an underground, growing phenomenon: the senior breakfast club. As written about in The New York Times last year, these are groups of older people who meet up in the morning at cafés around the country to good-naturedly rib each other, hopped up on decaf, with a self-deprecating irreverence, affection, and wit that only come after life oxidizes us...like a fine wine.

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Actors Richard Kind, Tovah Feldshuh, Paul Raci, and the rest of our core cast have done a superb job conveying what it’s like to keep each other company as the world turns away, and the value of not giving up even though they may be running out of time to achieve their dreams.

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Not Dead Yet has a message for the younger generations: use us older folks as a resource of experience and humor. It also has a message for seniors: ’tis never too late to pursue a dream! Our hope is that this message is one that seniors would like to hear. Indeed, it’s already happening! Older people getting in their 10,000 steps per day, going for a surf, painting their masterpiece...or, as Elliot says, “going a second time!” with or without the help of Sildenafil Citrate.

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— Eric Weber