Seniors Address Sex & Stereotypes

What would you do if you saw your grandparents having sex? The very thought of that image is enough to make many people cringe or click off this site. In her first film “All of Me: Sex Over Seventy,” Miami documentary producer Gina Margillo highlights two very compelling and diverse senior citizens who boldly share the secrets of maintaining a healthy sex drive. “Sex for people in the late stages of life is much more than just physical and I wanted to break the stereotypes of older people and sex,” says Margillo.

Breaking barriers within the elderly community almost kept Margillo’s film as just a good idea. In many circles being blunt about sex is still taboo. “A lot of the seniors were afraid to go on camera because they didn’t want their adult children to know,” says Margillo. After passing out flyers, reaching out to senior centers and personally interviewing more than a dozen people in San Francisco, an 84-year-old woman and 72-year-old man trusted Margillo with their story.  

Peggy Cartwright has the smile, sassy personality and spirit of a wonderful grandmother. The two-time divorcee is happily dating her 62-year-old boyfriend. “I like younger men,” says Cartwright. Throughout the film, Cartwright, who loves drawing and painting, looks directly into the camera and declares sex is better now than any other time in her life. “One of my grandmothers lived until she was 100 and I figure I’m going to make it also and she was active until the end, so I probably will be too,” says Cartwright.

An air of confidence and conceit fills the film, when the camera introduces viewers to 72-year-old Ivan Spane. “I like to dress a certain way. I have my own style,” said Spane. The devout yoga student, who’s in a monogamous relationship, says at his age sex has a different level of importance. “Unless you are turned on by their personality, sex kind of becomes meaningless,” says Spane. Still, he asserts there’s no better feeling and cautions people against dismisses sex as they age. “Do it as much as you can and as often as you can and always keep your heart open.”

Here’s a clip of: “All of Me: Sex Over Seventy,” http://vimeo.com/5701437. The film was one of several short documentaries recently selected to screen at the DC Shorts Film Festival.
Margillo became a film producer after she was laid off. She used her Roth IRA to pay for a five-week film production class in San Francisco and only had access to equipment for 10 hours to shoot "All of Me: Sex Over Seventy."

Please leave a comment for the film producer, Gina Margillo at gmargillo@earthlink.net or e-mail Maniko Barthelemy at NewsHeels@gmail.com.