2 documentaries up for Oscars tell stories of nonagenarians
The Oscar isn’t the only one celebrating its 93rd trip around the sun at the Academy Awards ceremony this year. The shorts category features two documentaries, “A Concerto is a Conversation “and “Colette,” about fellow nonagenarians who have led extraordinary and extraordinarily different lives.
One, Horace Bowers, is a 93-year-old Black man born in the Jim Crow South who became a successful business owner in California and the grandfather of a prominent composer. The other, Colette Marin-Catherine, is a French woman who was part of the resistance during World War II. She turns 93 on April 25, the day of the ceremony. Neither ever dreamed that they would have any connection to the movies at all, let alone Hollywood’s greatest honor.
“I do think it’s an amazing coincidence and sort of feels
fateful that both Horace and Colette are not only very close to the same age but that the Oscars itself was born at almost the exact same time as they came into the world and that almost a century would pass before their stars aligned,” said Ben Proudfoot, the co-director of “A Concerto is a Conversation.” “It’s like a Halley’s Comet that all these threads would come together at this exact moment. I think it’s pretty special.”
Proudfoot co-directed
“A Concerto is a Conversation” with Horace Bowers’ grandson Kris Bowers, an accomplished composer and pianist whose Hollywood credits include “When They See Us,” “Green Book,” “Bridgerton” and the upcoming “Space Jam” sequel. Kris Bowers looked to his grandfather’s wild decision to hitchhike out of Florida as the reason he’s now performing his own violin concerto at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.