Searchers

How do New Yorkers go about finding love in times of Covid? We dip into a mixed bag of “searchers,” from a young man to a gray-haired lady wearing reading glasses. There’re all looking for love online, on everything from Tinder to Grindr. A special compositing technique means we can clearly see the searcher against the blurred background of their potential love matches. We see the hesitation in their faces before they swipe either left or right. Robert, who's 75, advises his friend Arthur, three years his senior, to stop taking women out to eat on a first date, as it takes too much time and costs too much money.

When it comes to writing profile texts, it turns out the filmmaker is also on the lookout for a partner. Together with his 70-year-old mother, he checks out his matches. So as well as being a portrait of New York love seekers, Searchers—which was previously screened at Sundance—is part of the filmmaker’s own personal quest.

This entertaining and touching glimpse into the world of online dating lightheartedly confronts us all—single or not—with the questions: What is love? What am I looking for? And why?