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WHEN SCREENWRITER AND BRIGHTON NATIVE Steven Loring set out to make his first documentary film, he chose a topic close to home. Not only that, but he actually left Brooklyn to come home to Rochester to film it. The result, The Age of Love, a comedically poignant look at how our hearts evolve as we grow older, will have two screenings at The Little Theatre on Oct. 18.

The documentary follows the adventures of a group of pioneering seniors who sign up for a Rochester-wide speed dating event exclusively for 70- to 90-year-olds. Spurred to take stock of aging bodies and still-hopeful hearts, they soon discover how dreams and desires change—or don’t change—from first love to the far reaches of life.

“I’d ended a somewhat unfulfilling decade writing movies for TV and was looking to tell stories about real life that I felt passionate about,” Loring says. So he enrolled in the MFA Social Documentary film program at NYC’s School of Visual Arts and went in search of a thesis topic.    Continue Reading

Kicking off the media tour for THE AGE OF LOVE’s Rochester Premiere, director Steven Loring spoke with Rachel Barnhart on WHAM1180 this week.

A comedically poignant look at how our hearts evolve as we grow older, the documentary follows the adventures of a group of pioneering seniors who sign up for a speed dating event exclusively for 70- to 90-year-olds. Spurred to take stock of aging bodies and still-hopeful hearts, they soon discover how dreams and desires change—or don’t change—from first love to the far reaches of life.

A screenwriter and Brighton native, Loring shot his first documentary feature in locations all around the city, and the speed daters are all local residents.

THE AGE OF LOVE will have two screenings at The Little Theatre on Saturday, October 18 at 2:00 and 6:30 p.m. A panel discussion on dating after 60 and a Q&A with the director will follow the screenings.

Reserve tickets now at http://thelittletickets.org/boxoffice/.

By Brenda Lind, AARP Community Engagement Specialist

YOU MAY THINK THAT FINDING LOVE IN LIFE should be left mainly to the younger set, but, after seeing “The Age of Love,” the documentary, you will change your mind. In the words of the film’s director, Steven Loring, “After seeing this movie, you will never look at your parents or grandparents the same way again. And that’s a good thing.”   Continue reading

by Linda Abbit, SENIOR PLANET

FILMMAKER STEVEN LORING WANTED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED to love as we age. For answers, he followed a group of speed daters in their 70s and 80s. The result is a powerful film about resilience and universality.

“I’m trying to get the stories that aren’t told and the feelings that aren’t exposed. Would you be open to being interviewed?”

The “I” is Steven Loring, a 40-something-year-old fledgling filmmaker who is making his first full-length documentary film. The “You” is a succession of seniors in the Rochester area whom Loring is contacting in the hope they will become subjects in his film. They’ve all signed up for a senior speed dating event that Loring has picked as the locus for his exploration of love and how it changes – or doesn’t – as we age.     Read more…

WHAT A CONCEPT: Speed dating for 70- to 90-year-old singles! “The Age of Love” held its Southern California premiere at the 2014 Newport Beach Film Festival, and is a fun, entertaining and sensitive social documentary of our times.

The film allows a peek inside the journey of a small group of adventurous seniors in Rochester, NY who enroll in a first-of-its-kind speed dating event.

“The great secret old people share is that your body changes, but you don’t change at all” – this quote by Doris Lessing, the oldest writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, is an ideal backdrop message for this insightful documentary story.

Read more…

DO DECADES OF LIVE AND LOSS constrict our hearts, or might time develop them in unexpected ways? That’s the question filmmaker Steven Loring seeks to answer in “The Age of Love,” a documentary that follows the adventures of 30 seniors in Rochester, New York, who sign up for a speed dating event for 70 to 90 year olds.

The 90-minute film chronicles both the speed dating event and the nerve-wracking date drama that follows. It will premiere at the Newport Beach Film Festival April 27, April 29 and May 1.

Speed dating is a matchmaking process that allows participants to meet a number of potential dating partners for a set time period, usually about five minutes.    Read more

ON THE DAY BEFORE VALENTINE’S DAY, THE AGE OF LOVE was invited back to Rochester, NY – the city where it all began – for an interview on WXXI, the local NPR affiliate.

Director Steven Loring and speed dater Janice Ledtke sat down with host Evan Dawson for a chat on how the film came about – and how it illuminates the struggles of American seniors to redefine their emotional lives in a radically changing world.