Michelle Le Brun, Producer/Director

stereotypes of ageism are confronted and the beauty of aging is revealed through five Rhode Island elders who have shaped the landscape of Rhode Island and beyond. Their voices take flight against the backdrop of archival imagery that captures the vision of an earlier time.

 takes on the realities of aging and ageism through simple, personal stories of elders. While certain physical limitations are real as we age, there are many faculties that strengthen and often people report the older years as being the happiest years of their lives. Stereotypes not only have the effect of causing early death for those that hold them. They also maintain biases in our country that rob young and old alike of wisdom, guidance, knowledge, and equity.

stereotypes of ageism are confronted and the beauty of aging is revealed through five Rhode Island elders who have
shaped the landscape of Rhode Island and beyond. Their voices take flight against the backdrop of archival imagery that captures the vision
of an earlier time.

Montreal Independent Film Festival

Utopia Film Festival

Rhode International Film Festival

Rhode Island Black Film Festival

Block Island Film Festival

The Women's Independent Film Television Film Festival

How Michelle Le Brun, a documentary filmmaker and professor at URI, is breaking the stigma and raising awareness around ageism in her new film, 'Optics of Aging.'

Tabitha Pereira

As Le Brun says, “ageism is the last “ism” it seems still ok to have. Let’s change that!”

Herb Weiss

Michelle@harkenprods.com
401 477-4630

Death: A Love Story, marked Michelle Le Brun’s debut as a filmmaker having directed, produced, written and photographed the film. It was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival, Best Documentary at Santa Barbara Film Festival, won top awards at other film festivals, and aired on national PBS and CBC Canada. An analysis of the film was featured in the following books:  Sundancing (2000), by John Anderson, History in Documentaries (2005), by Alan Rosenthal (China edition), and Documentary Media (2018), by Broderick Fox. Death: A Love Story is currently used in classrooms in over 500 universities and colleges in the US and Canada.

In her new film, Optics of Aging, stereotypes of ageism are confronted and the beauty of aging is revealed through five Rhode Island elders who have shaped the landscape of Rhode Island and beyond. 

Michelle has also taught in higher education for over 30 years. 
