A van pulls up at a rural location and a number of older women disembark, talking and joking, and looking forward to their vacation. For the next hour, until the van leaves near the end of the film, filmmaker Owen Shapiro creates a wonderful collage-portrait of a group of elderly people who gather at a summer camp. Whether telling jokes ("Max is dead; Toyota for sale"), reading letters aloud ("She invited him up to her apartment for a nightcap; she should know better at her age") or perusing personal ads ("Can't dream alone"), they reveal the multitude of ways one connects with others, retells a personal history, and keeps shared culture alive. Beautifully filmed on location at both Salomon Vacation Center, Brewster, New York, and Camp Isabella Freedman, Falls Village, Connecticut, the conversations of the vacationers are densely interwoven with movie quips ("I think I'll stick around for a long time"). Joel Saxe's delightful Yiddish Folksingers of Miami Beach (1991, 30 mins, Color, From the artist) is part informal ethnography, part warmhearted home movie. Retirees sing their favorite songs, informally talk about the power of singing, and then begin another song.-Kathy Geritz