Sheila Malkind

I am the Executive Director of the Legacy Film Festival on Aging . In 2011, I and a group of volunteer board members presented the first annual Legacy Film Festival in San Francisco, California.

Our mission now is presenting a film festival that inspires, educates and entertains intergenerational audiences about the issues surrounding aging. We showed shorts and feature films from around the world, documentaries and fictional pieces celebrating older adults, their challenges and triumphs, adults who continue to make life creative and meaningful.

I have worked in the field of aging for 50 years, delighting in the stories of elders, holding their hands when things got tough, learning how to laugh and be resilient, since that’s what I saw from them.
I was the director of the Silver Images Film Festival in Chicago from 1999-2002, and wanted to continue to motivate younger people to see their potential in later years, and for older people to appreciate their journey during senior years.

The first year of the Legacy Film Festival on Aging we had an audience of maybe 250. Four years later, in 2015, there were around 500 attendees — many of whom have attended two or three, and even all five of the festivals. Writing in post-film evaluations, participants said: “Made me want to live until 90” “A privilege to watch” “Touching portrayals of difficult issues” “Can’t wait until next year. More!”

Older adults can make a tremendous contribution. Hire them, and you will see reliable, hard-working, delightful, knowledgeable people, eager to learn new skills.