Pop-singing seniors of Young @ Heart Chorus are a hit onscreen
As chorus director for the suddenly hot singing group, Cilman said he was worried that any filmmakers would "exploit" the chorus members, or that they would treat them "as some sort of novelty act."
After all, Young @ Heart is made up of a dozen-plus senior citizens (most of them range from ages 70 to 90), and among the songs they sing in concert are unlikely hits by R&B, punk-rock and Brit-pop acts.
"I just wasn't convinced in the merits of a movie," he recalled. "We'd been perfectly doing fine on our own for years and didn't really need someone coming along and messing all that up."
However, Cilman and the group reconsidered when filmmaker Stephen Walker approached them. Walker, an English television producer and journalist, originally envisioned a short piece on the group, but as he got to know them, the project eventually turned into a feature-length documentary.
Titled simply "Young @ Heart," the film follows Cilman and the chorus as they prepare for a series of 2005 concerts, one of them in their hometown of Northampton, Mass. Among the songs they're practicing for these concerts are numbers made popular by James Brown ("I Feel Good"), Allen Toussaint ("Yes We Can Can"), Coldplay ("Fix You") and Sonic Youth ("Schizophrenia").
"We've done show tunes, golden oldies and the classics as well — anything that's interesting and that the chorus decides it wants to sing," he said from Northampton, where he was helping promote the new movie.
Cilman added that the song selection process is also a lot more "democratic" than the movie. "There's not a lot (the chorus) will let me get away with."
Still, he admitted that practices and shows don't always go smoothly. The movie even looks at the health issues of various chorus members, including Fred Knittle and Bob Salvini, both of whom had to leave Young @ Heart because of the wear-and-tear on their bodies.
(Cilman is even shown in the film trying to coax the baritone Knittle and the sweeter-voiced Salvini out of retirement so they can duet on Coldplay's "Fix You.")
"Practicing songs is a lot more demanding, physically and emotionally, than a lot of people might think," he said. "And when your body is already failing you, it's even more difficult. I really admire all of these people for what they give of themselves."
The 50-something, admitted "failed musician" Cilman began Young @ Heart 25 years ago, when he was working for an elderly housing program. He originally envisioned it is a recreational rehabilitation activity, but public performances by the mostly amateur singers proved to be very popular.
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