Judith Schaefer's movie, , screened at the Roda Theatre in Berkeley on Tuesday and when the lights went back up, the crowd of mostly senior citizens were on their feet wildly applauding the filmmaker. The gray-haired lady sitting in front of us was shouting, "your movie is a gift! It's a poem!"

Shaefer's documentary is itself the story of a prose poem written by a German Jew named Samuel Ullman who lived in the American South during the Civil War. This humble merchant who once fought in the Confederate army went on to become a civic leader who agitated for public education for blacks in Birmingham, Alabama. When he was 68, Ullman wrote a poem called "Youth" that traveled across time and continents to inspire notable people from Nobel Peace Prize winner and president of Korea Kim Dae-jung, Bobby Kennedy and General Douglas MacArthur, who in turn introduced the poem to the whole nation of Japan.

Apparently, "Youth" is not just a poem for the Japanese but a directive for the way one should live life. According to the movie, Japanese tourists make pilgrimages to Birmingham, Alabama to pay tribute to this poet of whom most Americans are unaware.

After the jump: the inspirations of old age and.... Gavin Newsom!

SFist Mihi, contributing,

So Long Are You Young