Reveling in the buzz around "Young@Heart"

Documentary filmmaker Stephen Walker made a little film called "Young@Heart" about a choral group in Massachusetts made of senior citizens who perform rock songs. The movie became a hit on the film-festival circuit, and Fox Searchlight picked it up for release (it's playing now in Seattle; see Page 6 for showtimes).

Now, members of the chorus have been making the TV rounds, with appearances on "The Tonight Show" and "The Today Show," while Walker has been chatting up newspapers. He talked about the increasing buzz surrounding the good-natured movie.

Q: Are you surprised at the reaction the film is getting?

A: It's been the most incredible experience. We're on this incredible tour organized by Fox Searchlight. When they first picked up the movie, I thought, "This will be really nice." But they're very passionate about the film, and you see what a brilliant job they've done with "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Juno." It's very exciting.

Q: It seems like the kind of movie that will touch audiences.

A: When it was at Sundance, tickets were selling on eBay for it. It had lots of standing ovations. So far, all of our screenings have been packed.

In 9 out of 10 cases, there are standing ovations, people in tears and lots of applause throughout the film. It's been the most incredible thing to watch.

Q: When you made this film, were you thinking of a release on this scale?

A: I was never thinking on any scale. I'm just an ordinary bloke from west London who was trying to come up with an idea with his wife and rapidly going broke. For us to be in this extraordinary situation is amazing.

Q: How did you discover the Young@Heart chorus?

A: I went to see them perform in London at the Lyric Hammersmith. They had great reviews, but I wasn't sure what I was going to get. I wasn't sure if this was going to be gimmicky territory or patronizing territory. But their live performances are amazing. They just did this incredible repertoire of songs with real gusto. It's really interesting, original kinds of interpretations of songs which I thought I knew, but they sounded really fresh for the first time in years.

Q: The songs are well-chosen, because they take on different meanings when performed by seniors.

A: When 93-year-old Eileen (Hall) screams "Should I Stay or Should I Go," the whole audience reacted in concert. It became very obvious that she was singing about life and death. All these songs had relevance at their age.

"Stayin' Alive" is about literally staying alive. "Purple Haze" becomes about dementia. It became obvious there is a rock opera to be made about old age, because nobody deals with this subject.