Abstract
The documentary The Passage of Time, directed and produced by David Albert Habif, offers viewers a raw look into individual experiences and perceptions of aging through candid interviews with people ranging from 12 to 101 years old. By juxtaposing adolescents’, young adults’, and mid- to late-life adults’ experiences, the varying perspectives of aging become clear. The producers limit their narration of the interviews, allowing their viewership to identify patterns and trends as well as develop reactions on their own. Throughout the documentary, sociologists, including but not limited to life course scholars, social gerontologists, family scholars, and social psychologists, will recognize major facets of their scholarly areas.
Briefly, the documentary is concerned with showcasing the voices of their respondents as they discuss social relationships across the life course as well as what it means to age. Habif conducts and compiles qualitative interviews to showcase the ways individuals at different stages of the life course view their experiences, the implications of those experiences, and how they view the future, even death. In doing so, the documentary is split into two sections. The first portion of the documentary focuses on interviewees’ thoughts on family throughout the life course, discussing both their negative and positive experiences of social relationships. During this section of the documentary, there is a focus on intergenerational relationships. Interviews cover the meaningfulness of these relationships for both parents and children as well as how they view these relationships as changing or staying the same across the life course (e.g., caretaking and caretakers). To help synthesize these experiences and understand the psychological underpinnings of what is being described, Habif brings in Dr. David Rubin, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Rubin contextualizes the importance of social relationships, starting from birth, in helping humans understand the world around them as either safe and responsive or unpredictable and dangerous.
In the latter half of the film, the interviews shift to discussing the meaning of becoming “old,” revealing the relative nature of individuals’ definitions. The cohort differences in fears and perceptions of aging become clear in these interviews. For example, younger individuals discuss their fears of aging physically, while adults in their later years discuss their fears of aging mentally. Again, Rubin offers the viewers advice, based on his scholarly knowledge, on how to view aging in ways that will help individuals maintain a positive attitude toward change.
The topics covered in the documentary lend themselves more directly to specific classes in sociology, such as Life Course and Aging, Social Gerontology, Sociology of Family, and Social Psychology, but could be used in more general courses, like Introduction to Sociology. However, while the film alludes to various sociological concepts, the documentary does little to overtly highlight these concepts or make those connections explicit for the viewer. Filmmaker, writer, and teacher Samina Mishra (2018) writes that a film is complete not when the film is finished but after the film is screened and dialogue ensues. Accordingly, instructors of sociology should assign this documentary as a supplemental film and conduct a formative assessment of students’ identification of and reaction to sociological concepts and patterns depicted throughout the film as they connect to course content. One method for conducting this formative assessment is an in-class discussion. As a collaborative learning practice, interactive in-class discussions bring students into the knowledge-creation process by decentering the instructor (Rinehart 1999). Even more, research has found that students leave collaborative learning classes with an expressed interest in the course content (Rinehart 1999; McDuff 2012). In TRAILS, Espy (2023) developed and published a useful resource for successfully implementing and assessing in-class discussion, the Class Discussion Bingo Card activity. This assignment allows students to prioritize sociological thought and practice critical discussion skills with diverse publics while maintaining a sense of autonomy in how they are being evaluated.
Additionally, the film’s use in a classroom setting allows for various patterns related to gender and age to be identified. To aid in students’ ability to make these connections, instructors could incorporate research on gendered views of aging into their course either through lectures or assigned supplemental readings, such as Kornadt, Voss, and Rothermund’s (2013) or Calasanti and King’s (2018) articles on gendered perspectives of aging. Further, the documentary’s interviews are largely, if not completely, with white individuals. Students would benefit from concomitant instruction on racial and ethnic differences in aging experiences and perceptions (see Roberts et al. [2015] for possible supplemental reading).
Finally, instructors should be prepared to debunk misconceptions that interviewees allude to as the documentary itself does little work in that regard. For instance, two older women perceive an increasing divorce rate among younger generations as an explanation for social issues, specifically as it relates to children’s living arrangements. First, research has suggested, due to higher education, older age at marriage, and lower-order marriage, younger generations are divorcing at lower rates than their older counterparts (Cohen 2019). Further, instructors might consider reviewing scholarly literature that shows support for a two-caregiver perspective rather than a marriage perspective (Simons et al. 2006) and further avoid supporting marriage-promoting arguments by emphasizing the need for social policies that support families after divorce to combat the negative consequences related to socioeconomic status changes and future transitions (see Raley and Sweeney [2020] for review). This might serve as an interesting opportunity to take a life course perspective in the classroom while discussing the differences between cohorts’ lived experiences and what might have influenced the shared beliefs of these interviewees.
As Mishra (2018:112) states, “Films can bring the world into the classroom. They can carry stories, voices, and images that in life may be far removed from us, both as documentary and fiction. Films are about inner lives and outer worlds.” Overall, The Passage of Time offers a unique opportunity for students to engage in their own practice of identifying sociological concepts and patterns through qualitative interviews, honing their critical thinking skills. Paired with appropriate supplemental material and critical sociological discussion, the film is well positioned to engage students’ sociological imagination regarding several sociological topics, both foundational and complex.