Lives Well Lived: Film & Event Series

Lives Well Lived: How Do I Want to be Remembered?
A Free Film and Virtual Event Series

February 19 through March 6, 2021

Join us to enjoy a special, free virtual series of events around the film “Lives Well Lived.” 

“A warm, uplifting and enlightening feast for the heart, mind and soul.”
— The NYC Movie Guru

Forty people aged 75 to 100, with a collective life experience of 3000 years, share their secrets, wit, and wisdom on how to live a meaningful life. Watch the film, participate in a special Q&A with filmmaker/director Sky Bergman, and learn how to record your own personal memoir or oral history as we celebrate our lives well lived together.

Registration is free but required for all virtual events.

To register, see dates, times and listings below and on the Fairfield Museum’s event calendar.

 

Film Screening Days: “Lives Well Lived”

Friday, February 19 through Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Click here to register and you will receive a private link to watch the film on your own time. The film is 56 minutes long.
The film “Lives Well Lived” celebrates the incredible wit, wisdom and experiences of adults aged 75 to 100 years old. Through their intimate memories and inspiring personal histories encompassing over 3,000 years of experience, forty people share their secrets and insights to living a meaningful life. These men and women open the vault on their journey into old age through family histories, personal triumph and tragedies, loves and losses – seeing the best and worst of humanity along the way. Their stories will make you laugh, perhaps cry, but mostly inspire you.

 

Virtual Live Q&A with Sky Bergman, Filmmaker/Director

Sunday, February 21, 7pm
Click here to register and you will receive a private link to this Zoom meeting.
Sky Bergman is an accomplished, award-winning photographer. Lives Well Lived is Sky’s directorial debut. Her fine art work is included in permanent collections at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Seattle Art Museum, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Her commercial work has appeared on book covers for Random House and Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc., and magazine spreads in Smithsonian, Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel, Reader’s Digest, and Archaeology Odyssey. Sky Bergman currently is a Professor of Photography and Video at Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, CA. 

 

My History as an Heirloom: 
How Will I Be Remembered? 

Wednesday, February 24, 2pm
Click here to register and you will receive a private link to this Zoom meeting.
Join the Fairfield Museum for a conversation about remembrances, celebrations of life, and preserving our histories for future generations. In this virtual program, meet guest speakers, learn about oral history and how to begin yours, and participate in a biographical sketch activity. Guest speakers include: Bonnie Collier, Director for the Yale Law School Oral History Project, Rebecca Lautenslager from Shaughnessey-Banks Funeral Home, and Anita Peters, a Humanist Celebrant. 

 

BONUS DAY: Watch the film

Friday, February 26
Click here to register to receive a private link to watch the film “Lives Well Lived” on your own time. The film is 56 minutes long.

 

 

 

 

 

Oral History: A Virtual Hands-On Workshop

Saturday, February 27, 10am
Click here to register and you will receive a private link to this Zoom meeting.
If you could hold on to one memory forever, what would it be?
In this virtual “hands-on” workshop, join Bonnie Collier, Director for the Yale Law School Oral History Project, as she shares how to get started with an oral history project. The Fairfield Museum will share example of oral histories in our library, and Bonnie will guide you on the basics of how to collect, record, share, and preserve an oral history. Learn about the importance of interviewing and the power of listening – there’s always more beneath the surface!

 

Death Café  

Saturday, March 6, 10am
Very limited attendance. Registration is required. Click here to register to receive a private link to this Zoom meeting.
Bring along your morning beverage of choice and join Anita Peters, Humanist celebrant, and other facilitators in this death café, informal yet intimate virtual conversation about how we approach our mortality.

A Death Café is a scheduled get-together to discuss an often taboo subject – death. The purpose is to educate one another and to help each other become more familiar with the end of life. The idea originated with a Swiss sociologist and anthropologist Bernard Crettaz, who organized the first café mortel in 2004. Please note: this is not a bereavement group. Please see this link for Bereavement and Grief Support Resources.

 

The Lives Well Lived Film & Event Series is presented by the Fairfield Museum and History Center.

Co-sponsored by Shaughnessey Banks Funeral Home and Mark This Day with Love, a service for commemorating the milestones in one’s life. Special thanks to our fellow partners, Pequot Library, Fairfield Public Library, SHU Community Theater, and the Bigelow Center of Fairfield.

 

“…a heartfelt reminder that for many, age is just a number.”
— Robert Abele, LA Times

“You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll feel, you’ll see life in a new light after watching ‘Lives Well Lived’ no matter what age you are. This is a timeless and special type of film that rarely comes along. A real jewel… If there’s one film you really need to watch at this year’s SBIFF, this is it! Trust me when I say, you will leave that theater inspired.”

— Oscar Flores (KEYT-TV ABC 3 – KCOY CBS 12 – KKFX FOX 11)