The Film
As a pioneering scientist races to develop the world's first FDA-approved drug to delay aging in dogs, an 87-year-old widower's bond with a rescue companion reveals the profound human stakes behind our quest to extend the lives of those we love.
Modern medicine has long been a game of Whac-A-Mole, treating individual diseases like dementia, cancer, and heart failure while ignoring the root cause: the biological process of aging itself. The A-Word: The Future of Aging follows the visionaries determined to break this cycle and redefine what it means to grow old.
The film follows two parallel journeys. In San Francisco, Celine Halioua, the founder and CEO of biotech startup Loyal, attempts to do what has never been done: earn FDA approval for a drug that extends healthy lifespan, choosing dogs as her first patients. Three thousand miles away, in the quiet winters of Maine, 87-year-old George Betke lives the reality Celine is trying to change. In the wake of his wife's passing, George finds new purpose in his devotion to Monica, a senior rescue dog.
Interweaving this emotional journey with the world's leading longevity scientists and bioethicists, the film blends provocative science with a raw portrait of love and loss. It looks past the technical how of biological engineering to the essential why of our existence.
"Appeals both to the head and to the heart."
— NEXT BEST PICTURE
— NEXT BEST PICTURE
"Appeals both to the head and to the heart."
"Fascinating and Moving."
— FILMHOUNDS MAGAZINE
"A thought-provoking and accessible film."
— FILMUFORIA
George Betke
Damariscotta, Maine / The 87-year-old heart of the film, with his rescue dog, Monica.
Laura Deming
Longevity Fund / Entered the longevity field as a teenage scientist and investor.
With Nir Barzilai, S. Jay Olshansky, James Peyer, Kyle Loh, Nenad Sestan, Zvonimir Vrselja, Stephen Latham, Jacob Kimmel, Blake Beyers
Featuring
Celine Halioua
Founder & CEO, Loyal / Racing to win FDA approval for the first longevity drugs for dogs.
Raiany Romanni-Klein
Bioethicist & Author / Author of Silver Linings, on the ethics and economics of longevity.
Cynthia Kenyon
Calico Life Sciences / The geneticist whose 1993 discovery opened the modern science of aging.
George Church
Harvard / Wyss Institute / Working on aging reversal and cellular reprogramming.
DIRECTOR
Filmmakers
Gary Krieg
PRODUCER
Steven Sander
EDITOR
CINEMAPHOTOGRAPHER
Grayson Kohs
Jónsi
COMPOSER
Alex Somers
COMPOSER
Director's Statement
There's a Willie Nelson song called "Dusty Bottles" that makes the quiet case for getting older. It lands on a line I can't shake. "Every song worth singin's got those lines." I wouldn't have noticed it ten years ago. I notice it now, every time I look in the mirror. As a young filmmaker I was giddy to work with grizzled, acclaimed cinematographers, the ones with gray hair and plenty of those same lines, because the more wrinkles, the more calm, and the more I trusted that some small piece of wisdom was headed my way. Now I'm that guy. The cinematographer who lensed The A-Word is my son, Grayson, about the age I was back then.
I was skeptical when this project first came to me. Almost everything I knew about longevity came from news feeds, which is to say snake oil and people chasing immortality. But a different mission emerged as we dug in. Not the circus version, but the quieter, more rigorous science underneath it. Serious people working on the shared trauma of aging, trying to inspire the next generation to carry the work forward. That is the film Gary Krieg and I signed on to make. We found our spine in Celine Halioua and her biotech startup trying to extend the healthy lifespan of dogs. Dogs and the people who love them. Not billionaires chasing more time.
But the science alone wasn't enough. The film needed a soul. We asked a real-person casting director to canvas the country, and one afternoon a tape arrived of a reserved former railroad man in his eighties named George, with his senior rescue dog, Monica. We fell in love with them on the spot. One question remained. Where did he live? "A small town you've probably never heard of," he said. "Damariscotta, Maine." I nearly fell out of my chair. My wife and I have a home in Maine, twenty minutes from George and Monica. Pure goosebumps. I have always been drawn to stories where the extraordinary shows up in the ordinary. The A-Word is about adding healthy years to life, and about the humans and dogs who remind us to add life to the years. George and Monica convinced me, again, that every story worth telling has those same old lines.
- Greg Kohs
Screenings
June 5, 2026
Tribeca Festival · World Premiere
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