Edith+Eddie

Edith+Eddie (2017)

Edith and Eddie, ages 96 and 95, are America's oldest interracial newlyweds. Their unusual and idyllic love story is threatened by a family feud that triggers a devastating abuse of the legal guardianship system.

Date of release
2017-03-02
TMDB
7.3 / 10 (19)
Runtime
30m
Genres
Documentary
Director
Laura Checkoway

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 1

Edith+Eddie is a 2017 American documentary film directed by Laura Checkoway and produced by Thomas Lee Wright. It was distributed by Kartemquin Films. When singer and entertainer Cher learned about the couple from a local news story, she offered to pay for repairs to the couple's home as well as Edith's medical bills. Cher is also the executive producer of the documentary film. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject at the 90th Academy Awards.

Background

According to Checkoway, the film was originally supposed to be a heartwarming love story about America's oldest interracial newlyweds, aged 96 and 95, who married after ten years together. However, the story took a turn when the happy couple was forcibly separated by a court order, mandating that Edith go live with her daughter in Florida.

When Cher saw a news clip about the couple's plight, she was very moved and wanted to know how she could help. “I called my lawyer and said, ‘Get into this and work on it,’ because I don't want to see this couple separated. They're too fabulous, and I just don't want to see anything bad happen to them.

She connected with the family and hired a lawyer to represent Edith and Rebecca Wright, one of her three daughters, in order to honor Edith's wishes to stay in her home.

“I took care of my grandmothers, I take care of my mother. It’s very expensive, and thank God I can afford to. But both my grandmothers said to me, “Don’t ever put me in a home.” Then my grandmother put my grandfather in a home; she made it seem like it was nirvana. I went to visit him, and I saw all these people just warehoused in this place. My grandfather didn't speak the whole time I was there.

Says Checkoway: “[Cher] wasn't seeking publicity; this was just something out of the generosity of who she is. She got involved behind the scenes and then she and I bonded and kept that connection going. It was pretty soon when we found out that there was disagreement between Edith's daughters about what was best for their mom. We did not know what would unfold, literally, until it did.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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