“The Oldest Person In the World” Documentary Explores What It Means to Live and Age

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Alexis Madrigal (1:36)

Welcome to Forum, I'm Alexis Madrigal.

You know, when I was 20, I couldn't really imagine what it would be like to be 44 I had a sense that I would feel old and different. I don't really. And I also guessed that I'd somehow figured out life and be in some sort of glide path towards retirement. But you know, middle age doesn't really work like that. It's full of surprises and switchbacks and learning and growth, who knew? And so it's with a lot of humility that I now approach aging. What do I know of what it will be to reach 60 or 80 or perhaps the universe willing, 100 years old?

And so I watched Sam Green's new documentary, The Oldest Person In the World, with whatever the opposite of morbid curiosity is, like wholesome, healthy curiosity. What was it like to be a human born in one century who lived into another? What matters after 115 years? It is a great documentary. Our whole family was riveted to the end. And Sam Green joins us here this morning. Welcome back to Forum, Sam.

Sam Green (2:35)

Oh, thanks for having me on.

Alexis Madrigal (2:38)

We're so excited. I want to start out with where you start out. You go to The Oldest Person In the World, 116th birthday party, it's in Brooklyn. It's the year 2015

And all these people are making a big hullabaloo. And what's Miss Suzie doing? She's asleep. Let's listen in to a cut from this documentary.

Sam Green (3:03)

It was this huge elephant in the room. There was something almost hysterical about how people ignored that fact.

They poured it on. Miss Suzie was a giant, a credit to Brooklyn, a legend in her apartment complex. Someone even said, Miss, you live 116 more years. All the while, the raw reality of that kind of age, barely being able to keep your eyes open or your head up, was the one thing no one said anything about. It was weird.

SPEAKER_6 (3:40)

We love you, Miss Suzie.

SPEAKER_7 (3:42)

Say hello to everybody. Hold up.

SPEAKER_9 (3:43)

Say thank you. Say thank you.

SPEAKER_6 (3:46)

Thank you. I love you, too.

SPEAKER_11 (3:51)

I love everyone.

Alexis Madrigal (3:55)

That was a cut from Sam Green's new documentary, The Oldest Person In the World. Was it that moment where you realized that this was going to be a major project or were you one of those weird kids like myself who memorized the Guinness Book of World Records when you were 10 years old?

SPEAKER_11 (4:11)

Both, actually.

Sam Green (4:14)

It was not quite the moment when I thought this would be a long documentary, but it intrigued me and it got me, there's something about it that sort of put its hooks in me. Because it was such a strange event. You know, there was this big public birthday party. The oldest person in the world was in Brooklyn right by my house. I went and filmed just on a lark because I was curious.

And she was sleeping the whole time. And that was strange, but the strangest thing was nobody acknowledged it. You know, people made speeches, people talked to her. And she was up on the sort of, on the stage asleep. And it was just, I couldn't quite figure out what was going on here.