| The 100 Years Show | |
| Director: | Alison Klayman |
| Starring: | Carmen Herrera |
| Country: | United States |
The 100 Years Show is a 2015 short documentary film that follows the Cuban-American abstract, minimalist painter Carmen Herrera as she celebrates her 100th birthday.[1] The film is directed by Alison Klayman,[2] who also directed .[3]
Director Klayman became interested in Herrera's work after hearing about her in 2013. "When some people from Lisson Gallery told me about Carmen in fall 2013, I immediately made plans to visit her in New York. I thought she had a lot of wisdom to impart and a fascinating life story to accompany a stunning body of work, but also I was excited that telling her story would challenge me in several ways," Klayman said in an interview with .[4]
The film follows Herrera through her current daily work schedule while also taking a look at her long life.[5]
The film premiered on Netflix and Vimeo On Demand on Sunday, September 18, 2016.[6] A screening of the film accompanied the Whitney Museum of American Art's exhibition of Herrera's work, "Carmen Herrera: Lines of Sight."[7]
On January 11, 2017, The 100 Years Show premiered in New York City at Film Forum alongside Everybody Knows...Elizabeth Murray, a film exploring the life and work of Elizabeth Murray.[8] The screening received positive reviews from multiple sources, including Hyperallergic,[9] Film Journal International,[10] The Guardian,[11] The Huffington Post,[12] The New York Times,[13] and was featured in a segment on CBS This Morning.[14]
On January 10, 2017, in anticipation of the screening, director Alison Klayman and the director of Everybody Knows...Elizabeth Murray, Kristi Zea, appeared on The Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC radio in a segment titled, "Shattering the Art World’s Glass Ceiling." During the interview Klayman states, "This isn't a story of an older person who suddenly decided to take up painting...this is the story of a full life, of basically a full century of working."
The film premiered at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto, ON, Canada.[15] The film won Best Documentary Short at the 2015 Heartland Film Festival,[16] the Ozark Foothills Film Festival, the Ashland Independent Film Festival, the River Run International Film Festival, the DOCUTAH Film Festival,[17] and the Indigo Moon Film Festival. It won Best Director and Best Editing at the DOCUTAH Film Festival as well.