Preview Screening: GRAINS OF SAND by Sarah Gross

Margot and Barbara, close friends and artists, and the director’s mother & mother-in-law, meet for a work retreat in a stone farmhouse in the German countryside. They are both on the cusp of their ninth decade. As they begin to work on the large stones they have brought to sculpt, they embark on a conversation about creativity and aging, exploring what it means for them to arrive at this stage of their lives. Their wrinkled hands become dusty as they scrape and chisel the stones.

Margot was born in England and now lives in San Francisco with her husband of over 60 years. In her studio she reflects on the struggle it took for her to maintain her painting practice as she navigated expectations as a wife and mother. She visits the gravesite she and her husband have chosen outside the city. On green sloping hills of the burial grounds, Margot imagines how it will be to live alone if Peter dies first.

In her studio in Hamburg, mother-in-law Barbara explains how after her divorce she didn’t have much money. She found a way to support herself with a part time job so that she would have time to paint every day. She hopes she can continue painting until her very last gasp. Barbara shares an apartment with her second husband, and observes how their relationship is changing now that they are approaching 80. The farmhouse becomes a yearly ritual where the women share their pasts, discuss their artistic processes, and reflect on their changing roles as artists, women, and mothers. Margot and Barbara aren’t looking back on their lives. They are living them.

Directed and produced by Sarah Gross
Cinematography Mies Rogmans
Edited by Nicole Fischer
Music composed and performed by Momo Djender
Co-Producer Athena Kalkopoulou
Sound Designer Mathias Wendt & Sarah Gross
Colorist Matthias Behrens
Poster, Graphics and Credits Designer Michael Read
Trailer Edit Vinzent Kutsche
Fiscal Sponsor Filmmakers’ Collaborative, San Francisco

Photos © Bugle Films

Host or Publisher Goethe-Institut and ICWA