One day Fran happened to mention that she might have a few boxes of slides from her time in the Foreign Service in storage somewhere. So I encouraged her to find them and bring them over to my house so we could see what she had. It turned out that Fran was quite the ethnographic photographer and I realized how well her remarkable images would enhance her story. It dawned on me that I really wanted to be the ‘somebody’ she would entrust her story to.
I also wanted to make this film because current events have made me aware of the need for more positive female role models. As I reach middle age myself, I see an even greater need for media profiling of older females, ones who could be my guide stars. Fran’s courageous and positive approach to living life to its fullest is also an anecdote to the lazy cynicism we are seeing too much of these days.
Fran's story will be the first in a series of original stories that portrays a diverse array of older women whose “kickass” lives refute the stereotypes.