Getting Older Film Club, Documentary Double Bill Geoffrey Wyn Thomas + Frances Gallaher, Your Hand in Mine (UK, 1980) & Philippa Lowthorpe, Three Salons at the Seaside (UK, 1994)

Funded by the Welsh Arts Council and overlaid with some delicious muzak, in the first film of the evening Wyn Thomas and Gallaher explore older age in Wales in the late 1970s. From disappoint to joy and including the difficulties and benefits of residential care, interviews are interspersed with footage of daily life in a manner that shows how old age is just as varied and, at times, fulfilling as any other age.

Our second film is by Phillipa Lowthorpe, now a high-profile director of series like The Crown, who made several documentaries early in her career, including this brilliant record of the informal support networks maintained in a trio of Blackpool hair salons in the 1990s. A beautiful and hilarious evocation of Northern female solidarity and grief, which also demonstrates the possibility of beauty and vitality in older age.

Part of the Getting Older film Club, for more information go to the website.

This screening is open to all and free to attend. No booking required - but if you are from outside King’s, please email Joe on joe.a.wood@kcl.ac.uk to be added to the security list at the Strand Building reception.

These screenings are supported by the Centre for Health Humanities (CHH) at King’s. Join the CHH mailing list for updates on news and events.