When we get to a certain age -- kids launched or launching, our own parents frail or gone from us -- its only natural to start wondering about how the years are going to go and what we will do with the rest of them, along with where we will do it.

Kings Point, a documentary directed and produced by Sari Gilman, makes you think even harder about those questions. It features five people who years ago did what many older Americans choose to do: pull up stakes and move to a retirement resort where they can dance, play golf and cards or enjoy a broad array of other activities and hobbies cheek by jowl with other retirees.

But the years have rolled on for Jane, Mollie, Gert, Bea and Frank, and the times are no longer as easy and happy at Kings Point as they were when they first moved to Florida.

Frank is passing his days with Bea but wants to find someone younger. Gert is adamant that she will not move in with her children -- and doesnt think they would want her to anyway. Mollie, who came to Kings Point with her now-deceased husband after he had a heart attack, regrets that she ever left New York. The five people talk about how hard it is to foster deep friendships where they live, whether they could ever fall in love again and how people at Kings Point keep their illnesses to themselves.

People in Los Angeles can watch the short film through Thursday at the Laemmle NoHo7 as part of the International Documentary Assn.s DocuWeeks 2012 program.

I spoke with Gilman about the film, which is dedicated to her grandmother Ida Gilman. Heres some of the interview, edited down for length and clarity.

Why did you decide to make the film?

My grandmother lived [at Kings Point] for 30 years and I visited her from the time I was about 9. I When I was younger, I was really fascinated by the place -- it seemed like summer camp for old people.

[But over time things shifted:] I saw a lot of loneliness, and I saw a lot of people staying in and not going out as much. If you had your health, that kind of made you popular. And if you didnt, people stopped coming by. I would hear people at the pool sort of whispering, Oh, Ida -- shes going down.

All of a sudden, everyone was going to the doctor instead of going to the clubhouse, but people didnt want to hear the other person complain. I imagined there was a lot going on internally with the residents there, but they didnt have an opportunity to talk to each other about it.

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Retirement resorts don't look so rosy in documentary film