Testing the adage that claims you can’t teach old dogs new tricks, while simultaneously celebrating the resilience of those who have endured through a lengthier than normal existence: that’s where a growing cohort of documentaries have found their niche. Young@Heart showed a chorus of elderly singers crooning more youthful tunes, Ping Pong told of a tournament of table tennis players aged over 80, and Gardening With Soul related the later-in-life efforts of a nonagenarian nun turned landscape gardener. Now, Hip Hop-eration charts the journey of an unlikely dance crew.
On New Zealand’s Waiheke Island, senior citizens up to the age of 96 regularly meet and bust moves, more as a form of exercise, a social occasion and a reason to leave the house than out of any real fondness for the musical style. Inspired by their enthusiasm, the group’s go-getting, much younger teacher and leader, Billie Jordan, determines to give her charges an extra adventure, endeavouring to gain entry as a tribute act into the World Hip Hop Dance Championships in Las Vegas.
In this particular breed of film, commonality of message breeds similarity in approach, preferring a balance of warm perspectives and wise recollections. The topic at hand – here, hip hop dancing – is a hook to spark interest, as predicated upon the contrast with its aging subjects. So too the ultimate aim of travelling and performing, a feat that weaves an underdog story of trying and succeeding through the feature as battles of ability, money and other issues are waged. The main point of interest actually stems from the people and their individual stories past and present. Each one adds to a portrait of determined older folks who have lived diverse lives with a never-say-die spirit that continues.
Fittingly, writer/director Bryn Evans spends much of the movie on the intimate rather than collective level, getting to know the colourful cast of characters that will go on to don hoodies on stage. Time has wearied their bodies but not their attitudes, as the gang demonstrates an acceptance that life is for living, clear knowledge of their inevitable end, and accompanying, self-deprecating humour in abundance. Several forays into Billie’s backstory adds balance, particularly in exploring the motivation for her dedication. That this is a film comprised of personality explains the affection that forms, the investment in their plight that grows, and the emotion that swiftly emanates.
Indeed, the dance competition components – whether rehearsing, auditioning or performing – almost feel superfluous, adhering as they do to the usual sports movie clichés. Montages of the group in action fly by, plainly shot, briskly edited and boosted by inherent sentiment already cultivated. When stitched together with more delicate moments to form a wide-ranging whole, it is far from surprising that the documentary that results keeps with the formula of its thematic brethren. Hip Hop-eration is another sweet and slight slice of elderly life ranging beyond expected bounds, standard in construction, familiar in content but buoyed by an inescapably uplifting spirit.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Hip Hop-eration
Director: Bryn Evans
New Zealand, 2014, 93 mins
Perth International Arts Festival – Lotterywest Film Program
perthfestival.com.au
24 November 2014 – 12 April 2015
Hip Hop-eration season: 16 – 22 March
Young At Heart Seniors Film Festival
www.youngatheart.net.au
14 – 22 March
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