And now we learn, in the 2 weeks before the release of HBO’s new Alzheimer’s Project on May 10th, that Maria Shriver is an executive producer. She’s making the press rounds to promote the project now – I’ve seen her last Sunday’s NYT’s Magazine and this article and interview in AARP’s mag.
I am reminded of something Naomi Boak (Exec Producer of the documentary The Forgetting) told me once. In so many words, she said that the point of film/tv is to have a big message that gets/holds attention and leads people to more nuanced ideas on websites, articles, and books. But is it worth it? Do people ultimately get the more nuanced information? In response to the AARP interviewer’s question “Why should more people be concerned about Alzheimer’s”, Shriver talks of the increasing numbers of people with early on-set, and then says “and with Alzheimer’s you are out of commission on every level. You need 24-hour-a-day care, but we don’t have enough caretakers and facilities.”
Eventually yes. But the more nuanced story would explain that people can live 15 years with Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia. I worry, as I do throughout Forget Memory, that such alarming statements usher those trying to live with the disease (and I can imagine Peter Whitehouse cringing at my use of that term!) right back into stigma, social isolation, and shame.
David Shenk and I have a friendly disagreement on this – as I do with many scientist/researchers. Perhaps they are right and the race for the cure and the tragic story need to lead popular consciousness in order to get any attention for Alzheimer’s in our landscape of multi-tasking where ageism and other fears keep most people’s heads firmly planted in the sand. Perhaps those of us in the arts and person-centered care movements just need to get a lot louder.
YES!!! Persons in the arts should get louder and LOUDER. We know that the arts can enhance the lives of persons living with memory challenges and it’s cruel that the Alzheimer’s empire does not better support this. Don
This was also in The New York Times last Sunday –
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/arts/television/03jens.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
I have seen one part of “The Alzheimer’s Project,” however not the one entitled “Memory Loss Tapes,” which is scheduled to focus on persons with early memory loss. At the screening, I heard people who had seen the entire project say that they came away from the two-part medical/science piece that we are “this close” to a “cure.” When I asked what “this close” meant, they said they heard 2011 in the film.
Again, not having seen it, I am trying to wait until having seen it completely to judge.
One thing someone forewarned me about was that in “The Memory Loss Tapes,” which premieres this Sunday, the camera zooms in on the exact moment when a man with dementia dies and his wife throws herself on top of him. Personally, I think that should have been a private moment. Again, will try to wait and reserve judgment until viewing it in its entirety.