Why am I in a movie about the oldest person and I'm only 53 years old?

The Oldest Person in the World, a new cinematic and "never-ending" documentary movie from the American film-maker Sam Green, has been released, 10 years after filming began. Here, Guinness World Records' Editor-in-Chief Craig Glenday (aged 53), who is featured in the film, shares his thoughts on Green's unique approach to this most fundamental of record titles.

It's not my first appearance in a theatrically released movie. I was thrilled to be a talking head in the all-time highest-grossing videogame documentary, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, 11 years ago. But my hectic schedule at the time of its cinematic release meant that I never got to see my big face on the big screen. I had to wait for the DVD release.

Fast forward to last week, and I finally got to see myself writ large at my local art-house cinema - not in King of Kong, but another movie, entitled The Oldest Person in the World, by the Oscar-nominated documentary film maker Sam Green.

Courtesy of Sam Green

As the title suggests, Sam's film concerns that most elemental of record titles: the oldest living person in the world. But far from a straightforward, nuts-and-bolts account of who held the record and when, this delightfully personal movie becomes something bigger: a beautifully crafted meditation on death, life, love, family, friendship, community and, of course, ageing.

Director Sam is no stranger to world records. He's been obsessed with the Guinness World Records book since he was a child, and in 2014 produced a "live documentary", The Measure of All Things, which opened at that year's Sundance Film Festival. In this curious and captivating work, Sam explores the ups and downs of record breaking by weaving together various narratives about existing and would-be record holders. On the rare occasion it's screened, it's done so live, with Sam providing the narration over a live soundtrack.

I was lucky enough to catch a performance of The Measure of All Things in London and was spellbound by this approach to presenting a movie. It's also where I had the pleasure of meeting Sam for the first time.

A few years later, Sam got in touch with an idea for another record-centred documentary, this time focused entirely on the oldest living person. At the heart of the concept was something wonderfully audacious: this would be a never-ending project. Just as the title of oldest person passes inexorably from one human being to another, the filming would continue indefinitely, long after its original subjects – and perhaps even its original filmmakers – had gone.

Courtesy of Sam Green

Intrigued, I was keen to welcome Sam to the London offices of Guinness World Records to share my thoughts on the topic. I've had the pleasure of meeting some of the world's oldest people - the oldest being the 116-year-old Jiroemon Kimura of Japan, the world's oldest man between December 2012 and his death in June 2013. Sam duly turned up in London with a Hollywood-sized film crew.

The first incarnation of his "never-ending" movie received its world premiere in January 2026 at Sundance, and I was lucky enough to catch what you could call, unofficially at least, the Scottish and indeed UK premiere, at my local art-house cinema at Dundee Contemporary Arts.

I was joined at the screening by my mother Sylvia (79), a clutch of her elderly friends, and a few chums of my own. I had extended the invite to Dundee's oldest citizen - 105-year-old Maisie Milne - but following a tumble earlier this year, she was sadly unable to attend. Even without her, though, the combined age of the small audience was edging close to four figures...

We were all expecting it to be something of a conveyor belt of supercentenarians, exploring the predictable question, "What's your secret?" (this is the question my mother hoped would be answered!)

Instead, Sam takes his audience somewhere altogether less predictable. The result is a remarkable piece of filmmaking – although, knowing Sam’s work, I really should have expected nothing less.

I was grateful, too, that my contribution had escaped the cutting-room floor. It was strangely thrilling seeing the 2022 version of me and my colleagues bustling around the GWR HQ, and exciting to see the GWR book whizzing through the presses in the print factory in Germany.

Courtesy of Sam Green

Watching myself on screen, two things struck me.

First, I felt immensely proud of how GWR has approached the topic of the oldest living person over the past 70 years - the rigour, care and respect with which we've processed the many hundreds of claims. Thirty-five people have held the title since I joined the company in May 2002 (see box-out).

The second thought was more personal. I'd filmed my contribution not long before I lost my father to a long illness. Watching that earlier version of myself talking about ageing and mortality was unexpectedly moving. My understanding of familial death – of absence, memory and the strange finality of losing someone – is very different now from what it was only a few years ago.

As this profound, 90-minute documentary observes early on, the story of the oldest person is a universal one, fascinating to people all around the world, of all ages, because ultimately it concerns the one journey we're all making. Until seeing this film, I'd always thought of this record as the one title we're all striving to break. But, as the film reveals halfway through, not everyone feels that way.

It's a heartbreaking moment, and one I won't spoil here.

Running in parallel is another thread about Sam's newborn son, Atlas ("briefly the youngest person in the world"!) approaching life from the other end of the scale. His arrival provides a beautiful counterpoint to the supercentenarians: one life just beginning as others draw gently towards their close.

And another thread introduces a threat to Sam’s own chances of ever reaching such a great age. Again, I'll leave this for you to discover.

I left the cinema with my brain buzzing, and my mother, cousin and I talked for hours afterwards about what we'd just seen: the extraordinary record holders; the importance of family and community; love, life and loss; and ultimately the meaning or at least purpose to being here at all.

And perhaps that's the point. However many years we are given, life is there to be lived. We must wring as much as we can out of life in of our brief spell on Earth, whether it lasts for Jeanne Calment’s extraordinary 122 years – the oldest authenticated age ever reached – or a mere 22. Don't miss it.

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