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One Filmmaker’s Life Lessons From Really Old People

By Lydia Dishman, Fast Company, Oct. 30, 2013

In an age when you can reliably network with just about anyone, anywhere in the world, Hunter Weeks made the connection of a lifetime very much offline. It was at an old folks’ home in Great Falls, Montana.

A director and producer of documentaries, Weeks had just wrapped his fourth film Ride the Divide, about the world’s most difficult mountain-bike race, and was working at a creative agency part time until the next burst of inspiration came along. Gathering information for a retrospective of the state’s denizens, Weeks came across an article about Walter Breuning. At age 113, Breuning “wasn’t just oldest person in Montana,” Weeks says, still shaking his head in disbelief, “He turned out to be the oldest man in the world. I was hoping he was still alive.”

Weeks hurried to make the three-hour drive to make Breuning’s acquaintance because the elder gentleman is part of an elite group of individuals known as supercentenarians, that is, people born in the 19th and early 20th century. The Gerontology Research Group estimates there are fewer than 400 people alive in the world today who are older than 110. Less than 10 of those were born in or before 1899.

When Weeks sat down with Breuning, he discovered that the 113-year-old not only was willing to chat, but that he could easily recall events that happened a century ago. “I was drawn into the stories he told and how with it he was at that age,” recalls Weeks. The conversation stuck with Weeks long after he drove back home. “I kept thinking back to that moment of spending time with this guy connected to the 1800s. He had really neat ideas about politics and living life right, those important basic things we kind of know, but when you hear it from someone around that long it hits you a little differently.”

In the days following, Weeks told several friends about his encounter. One person in particular pushed Weeks to stop talking and get to work. “We were falling in love and we talked about our lives and what we were going to do,” Weeks explains. His wife-to-be Sarah Hall provided the confidence and the encouragement to go out and find more supercentenarians and collect their experiences into a documentary.

Part documentary, part time machine, and part travelogue, the film, called simply Walter, took the couple from Montana to Georgia, Cuba to Italy, meeting the elders and their extended families while gathering tidbits of wisdom and a collection of reminiscences that put current events into historical context.

“Walter was 33 when the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began.” Weeks says Breuning’s recollections of the poverty faced by so many people during the 1930s made news accounts of the recent recession look less dire by comparison.

The perspective Weeks gained from meeting each elder was something he tried to incorporate into the film, especially because the one burning question nearly everyone has about longevity (“How can I live that long?”) didn’t really have an easy answer.

“I would ask them ‘Are you excited to be this old?’ and they’d tell me they couldn’t understand why they were still living,” says Weeks, chuckling at the memory. But their stories did have common threads of simple wisdom. “They were always finding the positive things about life. They were curious and still interested in learning. They continued to work and give back to their community; that was very important to each of them.”

Besse Cooper, who died last year at age 116, always knew she wanted to be a teacher and make a larger contribution to the world. Growing up working hard on a small farm taught her to be self-sufficient, says Weeks, but also to cherish family and neighbors.

Visiting Juana Bautista in Cuba was like stepping back in time, says Weeks. “You could see her happiness in the support of her huge family,” he says, even though their dwelling had mud walls and wood fire stove, and not much else.

“It’s the small things that matter,” says Weeks.

Unfortunately, Breuning didn’t live long enough to see himself on the big screen. He passed away shortly after Weeks filmed him. One thing that’s still resonating with Weeks is the irony that we as a society are looking at age in a very “old fashioned way.” He points out, “They didn’t overthink it. They just said, ‘What can I do today to make this day special?’”

#Hunter Weeks #centenarians #Walter Breuning #supercentenarians #lifestyles

Updated 4/15/2011 10:07 AM

GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) — Walter Breuning, the world's oldest man and second-oldest person, died Thursday. He was 114.

What an inspiration

#oldest man #Walter breuning #news #2011 #worlds oldest man #interesting #fact

"If you can remember me only with tears, then don't remember me at all."

Walter Breuning (The world's former oldest living man).

#Walter Breuning

Advice from Walter Breuning

Here's the world's oldest man's secret to a long life (recently deceased at 114 yrs old)

— Embrace change, even when the change slaps you in the face. ("Every change is good.")

— Eat two meals a day ("That's all you need.")

— Work as long as you can ("That money's going to come in handy.")

— Help others ("The more you do for others, the better shape you're in.")

— We're going to die. Some people are scared of dying. Never be afraid to die. Because you're born to die

—Walter Breuning

#advice #world's oldest man #walter breuning #good advice

World's oldest man dies at 114

By Elizabeth Flock, Washington Post, April 15, 2011 Walter Breuning had memories that encompassed two world wars, the Great Depression, the "swinging '60s,' the space race, and the technological revolution.

But his first memory was from when he was three years old, when his grandfather would tell him tales of killing Southerners in the Civil War.

"I thought that was a hell of a thing to say," Breuning said.

Breuning worked for the Great Northern Railway for more than 50 years, starting at just $90 a month. He bought his first car, a Ford, for $150 in 1919 . He bought a piece of property for $15.

When Breuning sat down for an interview with the AP this past October, he offered what he thought were the secrets to long life. This is what he said:

-- Embrace change, even when the change slaps you in the face. ("Every change is good.")

-- Eat two meals a day ("That's all you need.")

-- Work as long as you can ("That money's going to come in handy.")

-- Help others ("The more you do for others, the better shape you're in.")

And the hardest of all: Accept death.

"We're going to die. Some people are scared of dying. Never be afraid to die. Because you're born to die," he said.

Breuning died at a retirement community called Rainbow in Montana, to which he had moved in 1980. He would spend his days at Rainbow in an armchair in a suit and tie, sitting near a framed Guinness certificate that said he was the world's oldest man.

The only medication Breuning took was aspirin.

To his death, he received letters from admirers from around the world.

#Walter Breuning #old age