10 Things to Know About Old Enough
10 Quick and Efficient
Sisters Marisa and Dina Silver made Old Enough in 30 days with a $400,000 budget. It’s a remarkable piece of work for such a quick timeframe and low budget.
9 It’s Ironic
The title Old Enough reads as provocative but it is intended as ironic as the young characters, 12 year old Lonnie and 14 year old Karen aren’t really old enough for anything you typically need to be old enough to do.
8 Daughters of Destiny
That last name Silver may have piqued the interest of anyone familiar with the history of women directing movies. Joan Micklin Silver was a director who’d broken through as a director in the mid-1970s with movies like Hester Street (Read our own Sean Patrick’s review of Hester Street, linked here), which earned star Carole Kane an Academy Award nomination. It can then come as no surprise that Marisa and Dina Silver are Joan’s daughters.
7 The First Film to Receive Financing from the Sundance Institute
The Sundance Institute, founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, wasn’t in the film financing business. While the Institute was all about fostering the careers of young writers and filmmakers, until 1984, the Institute had not offered financial support to a specific film. But Sundance Institute, after being repeatedly pitched by Dina Silver, finally relented and invested $50,000 in Old Enough, becoming one of 15 organizations and 35 total investors who would finance the film.
Old Enough would then go on to win the Jury Prize at the very first Sundance Film Festival, then known as the U.S Film Festival.
6 Being Joan Micklin Silver’s Daughters Was Not an Easy Pass to Making the Movie
Being the daughters of two filmmakers may have influenced Dina and Marisa to become filmmakers but it didn’t open the doors you may assume. Being young, untested, first time filmmakers, especially being women at a time when the industry wasn’t exactly supporting many female directors, meant that no matter how well respected Joan Micklin Silver was, it was still an uphill fight for her daughters, one mom could only prepare them for, not fight for them.
5 One of Only 5 Films Directed by Women to Receive Theatrical Release in 1984
To illustrate the landscape facing Old Enough, it became one of only 5 movies directed by women to receive at least a limited theatrical release 1984. The others were:
The Joy of Sex directed by Martha Coolidge
Johnny Dangerously directed by Amy Heckerling
Love Letters directed by Amy Holden Jones
Mrs. Soffell by Gillian Armstrong
4 The Story is Autobiographical
Writer-Director Marisa Silver said the film is based on a real life experience:
“There was a time when I met a kid who was real different from me, and I learned that the world was more textured and complex than I knew.”
“I wanted to capture the way you suddenly, at that age, can walk around a corner and discover a whole new world.”
3 Alyssa Milano
Old Enough marked the film debut of a future star. Alyssa Milano debuted in Old Enough playing the sweet and loyal little sister to Sarah Boyd’s Lonnie.
2 Speaking of Sarah Boyd
12 year old Sarah Boyd was clearly inspired by her debut feature. Boyd left acting not long after Old Enough but pursued a Hollywood dream in a different way. She attended USC Film School and went into film editing. Eventually, her career expanded to directing where she’s been doing exceptional work for the past nearly 3 decades.
1 Author Marisa Silver
Feeling the pinch of the Hollywood scene, limiting the kinds of stories she was interested in telling, Marisa Silver gave up directing in favor of being an author. Since 2000 she’s published numerous short stories, story collections and novels.
