Four Seasons Lodge
For the past twenty-six years, an elderly group of Jewish Holocaust survivors have come together to spend some of the summer time at their bungalow retreat in the New York Catskill Mountains. They have enjoyed each others friendship, spending time socializing, cooking, dancing picnicking, just having a good time and happy to be with one another. Through time, as these people have aged, (in their 80’s and 90’s), some have lost their spouses and have found companionship with another. They don’t come to dwell on the past, but to enjoy the fact of their survival.
Four Seasons Lodge is a documentary directed by Andrew Jacobs who, with the help of cinematographer Albert Maysles, is able to get more stories of the past from these aging and dwindling numbers of people in what may, perhaps, be their final season together. He elicits memories from some of them and when he asks them why they survived, some respond while others refuse to answer.
Mostly, the film is inspiring, seeing how much life, love and joy these people are capable of expressing after all that they went through in their younger lives. It is beautifully filmed and heartwarming to watch.
Opening Dec. 11, 2009 at the Encino Laemmle and the Beverly Hills Music Hall
Running time one hour and thirty-seven minutes