DOCUMENTARY SHORT. Being 97 is a short film about my grandfather, Herbert Fingarette, an American philosopher and emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In a book he wrote 20 years ago titled “Death: Philosophical Soundings” he asked: If death is the end, then why be afraid? He now admits that the premise of his book is not so much “wrong” as it is asking the wrong question.

Making the film was a unique collaboration between filmmaker and subject, grandson and grandfather. I operated the camera and ran the sound, the sole crew member. My grandfather participated in telling his story, suggesting actions and ideas that helped shape the film.

Being 97 was also an opportunity for me to explore my own feelings around mortality. As I grow older, into middle age, the reality of aging and dying have become much more real. Watching my grandfather grapple with the question, and not find an answer, has given me a perspective that is both difficult and, in a sense, a relief. The answer, as he says in the film, is that there is no answer. It is simply an experience that everyone ultimately must go through.

This film is about re-considering: What is death and what does it mean to the living? Why does the will to live persist, despite the inevitable? This is the story of a man facing death, searching for an answer while rejecting the fallacy he described in his own earlier attempts at rationalization. I feel that my grandfather is a beautiful symbol of a universal human experience, as well as an engaging character in his own right.

I hope that you enjoy the film, which means a great deal to me and my grandfather. —— Andrew Hasse, Dir.