The Oldest Person in the World + Paper Trail
Director Sam Green makes his triumphant return to SFFILM with a deeply personal, lovingly crafted film documenting the world’s oldest people, as recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records.
This film will be preceded by the short film Paper Trail, directed by Don Hertzfeldt (USA 2026, 14 min).
Description
For over a decade, SFFILM mainstay Sam Green (Utopia in Four Movements, Festival 2010; 32 Sounds, Festival 2022) tenaciously documents the world’s oldest person, as determined by the Guinness Book of World Records. Traveling the globe, Green interviews each new record holder as the title passes. What begins as a simple premise evolves into a profoundly personal reflection on witnessing extraordinary lives. Green narrates moments from his subjects’ experiences alongside his own, offering a window into human endurance and the passage of time. As Green’s life evolves in parallel, the question expands: who will be the next record holder, and what drives the desire to document them at all? The result is an essayistic rumination on life’s extremes: death, birth, and the constant nature of change. —Amber Love
The Oldest Person in the World will be preceded by the short film Paper Trail, directed by Don Hertzfeldt (USA 2026, 14 min).
Festival alumni and Oscar® nominee Don Hertzfeldt brings beautifully tactile animation and rich sound design to Paper Trail, tracing the span of a life through the literal marks we leave behind.
Biographies
The Oldest Person in the World is the latest documentary from prolific filmmaker Sam Green. Among the Detroit native and UC Berkeley graduate’s other films are shorts Pie Fight ‘69 (Festival 2000); N Judah 5:30 (2004); Lot 63, Grave C (Festival 2006), winner of a Golden Gate Award for Best Short; and Utopia, Part 3: The World’s Largest Shopping Mall (Festival 2009); features Oscar® nominee The Weather Underground (Festival 2003) and Utopia in Four Movements (Festival 2010); and live documentaries A Thousand Thoughts (Festival 2018), The Measure of All Things (2014), The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller (Festival 2012), and 32 Sounds (2022).
