Grains of Sand

Filmed over eight years, Grains of Sand accompanies the filmmaker’s mother and mother-in-law, artists and close friends, as they enter their ninth decade. Through conversation, memories and artwork, along with reflections by the filmmaker herself, they create together this positive, different kind of “coming-of-age” story.

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.

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.

Sarah Gross, Director/Producer

Director and Producer Sarah Gross’ works have been shown in festivals around the world and broadcast on PBS nationally and Deutsche Welle internationally. Grains of Sand is her fourth feature-length documentary. Past films include documentary features Brown Bread and A Growing Thing and the documentary series Connection. Her production company Bugle Films is based in Berlin, Germany.