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Janey Callahan-Chin runs the community theatre in Rio Vista,
California, a rather unremarkable small town in the Sacramento River Delta
region. Especially the young feel bored to death in the village, and if
they're not good at sports, there's really rather little to do other than
the annual parade. Older folks meanwhile have been hard hit by the latest
financial crisis, many having lost their jobs. And this is where Janey
steps in, writing and directing musical plays for the whole family,
recruiting her cast and crew from locals from all over the age spectrum,
giving them - well, something to live for, essentially. Sure, it might be
no more than a play that's on for three nights, but the amount of work
that goes into it is amazing, and Janey is pretty much behind everything,
from writing the play, to getting cast and crew together, to rehearsing
with them, to advertising the play in the community to seeing that
everything goes smoothly during live shows. And Janey, a former dancer and
pre-school teacher, is still doing this at the tender age of 90, and still
shows drive and determination people half her age are often already
lacking. This movie follows her putting together her 18th production, a
play about her hometown during the depression era. But since she hasn't
slowed down, putting together her already 23rd play by the time the film
came out ... Janey Makes a Play is no documentary about
a "big" topic, judging by subject matter alone the film probably
wouldn't be interesting for anyone outside of Rio Vista - and at the same
time, the film's just highly inspirational, portrayting a woman who
despite her age has never lost her drive and spirit, who has set out to do
what she loves to do, and she's still doing it, spreading positivity along
the way. Where the film really succeeds though is not just portraying
Janey as this almost unreal heroine ("unreal" in the most
positive way) but in also making the society she lives in palpable, giving
a detailed portrayal of Rio Vista, a small town most of us probably have
never even heard of. And chances are high, after having seen this, even if
community theatre totally isn't your thing, you'll want to watch one of
Janey's plays!!!
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