Can we talk? The answer has been a resounding "yes" for a group of five Chilean women who have gathered once a month for the past 60 years to speak their minds--and reveal the current state of their hearts and souls.
Five years in the making, Tea Time is not to be mistaken for a television chat show. The gatherings begin promptly at 5 p.m. with the saying of grace, after which the topics might range from marriage, divorce, soccer and gossip to illness and mortality. Not a hair is out of place among the well-coiffed, elegant and highly cultured women, who may disagree on many topics but are always genial. Voices are never raised, except perhaps in laughter.
While all five core participants -- Alicia, Gema, Angélica, Ximena and Maria Teresa (Alberdi's grandmother) -- have similar backgrounds and all graduated from the same Catholic high school in the 1950s, their lives have taken different paths. One has never married: "She had lovers, but no one gave her what she wanted," says Maria Teresa, who does most of the narration. Others had husbands in the military, while another who was not able to pursue college takes continuing-education courses. High school photographs show all five in the bloom of youth; the film illuminates them in the sometimes hard-won glow of a lifetime of experiences.
"Tea Time takes us through a rite of friendship and shows the importance of traditions and celebrations and how rituals can help life make sense," says director Maite Alberdi.
While the gathering is routine, the array of topics and concerns is ever-changing and often surprising. And while the participants are dignified, there is no lack of frankness or candor--nor is there fear of broaching topics completely off the radar earlier in their lives, including contraception and homosexuality. Sometimes the talk even gets a bit risqué, invoking cries of "Please, don't continue!"
"Tea Time allows us to enter a female private space," Alberdi adds. "Around the table, intimate and universal themes intersect and are analyzed from the particular perspective of elderly women who look at the world through the lens of their conservative backgrounds, and who have been forced to adapt."
The social changes and upheavals of the past half-century are never far from their minds. During one gathering, they read from a home economics textbook from their high-school days that stipulates that a father's job is to make a living while the mother runs the household and raises the children. "Women do both jobs now," the ladies agree.
Marriage is deconstructed -- and reconstructed. "The truth is, we were raised to get married," Alicia recalls amid general agreement that traditional family life is best. But their marriages are not necessarily of the storybook variety; some have been visited by infidelity, divorce or the death of a spouse.
The sexual revolution, meantime, is seen as an absolute rout of the values with which the women were raised. "So, how come these young girls don't love themselves more?" Maria Teresa asks. "Sixty years have gone by," Ximena explains, and Angélica completes the thought: "Virginity is over; it is no longer a value." These observations are not made in bitterness and are often punctuated with laughter.
Some of the most captivating moments in the film are close studies of the women's faces, which reveal lifetimes of struggle and change, but also lingering joy. During opening grace it is reported that a friend has died, which initially brings sorrow, then laughter as better times are recalled. The women sing songs, read love letters and talk about their health problems and the inevitability of death. The individual strength of each is amplified by the communal strength gained via their longstanding companionship.
Although the documentary is almost entirely filmed around a table, there is a subtle lushness to it. The pastries are small works of art and seemingly rich enough to transmit calories through the camera. A soundtrack of guitar and whimsical violin is playful and sensual.
Alberdi sees a timelessness in this ritual. "As a granddaughter of one of the characters, I have been observing this monthly rite since childhood, and I have always seen the women in the same way: They have never aged. I'm interested in portraying this new way of living old age--in which new possibilities arise, though inevitably, they may be the last ones."
A celebration of the small things that sustain us, Tea Time illuminates a beautiful paradox: As the world they were born into slips away -- "Take me back to that age when to live was to dream," Maria Teresa says near the film's end--these friendships grow ever stronger and more profound.
Tea Time, an Official Selection of the 2014 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), is a co-production of Micromundo Producciones E.I.R.L. and ITVS International, with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.