What does it mean to be alive? The Oldest Person in the World sets out to answer that question by meeting the people who have lived long enough to hold one of the most extraordinary titles imaginable: the oldest person in the world. But what begins as a portrait of longevity gradually becomes something else, a portrait of how miraculous it is to be alive at all, much less to live for 117 years.
Sam Green's latest documentary starts off trying to look for the secrets of life from those who have lived the most of it. However, as he travels through the lives and stories of those who have lived for a century or more, the film becomes a record of his own changing relationship with life and the time he has left. Every image, voice, and unexpected connection feels carefully placed into a larger tapestry, creating a film that is as much an extension of its creator as it is a portrait of its subjects. Following his extraordinary film 32 Sounds, Green has created something even more intimate and moving. Heart breaking and life affirming in equal measures, The Oldest Person in the World finds the extraordinary in the most ordinary fact of all: that we are here. It is a film about the people who have lived the longest, but ultimately, it is about all of us, and the fleeting, miraculous experience of being alive.
The 2026 edition of the Forest City Film Festival is powered by London Hydro.
