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Archive for the ‘film’ Category

I didn’t hate it!  Nick Doob is a phenomenal cameraman – and he and Shari Cookson directed and produced this episode.  I’m a little baised on that front, he has worked with my husband on a couple of films as well…so I admit that warmed me up for this episode.

Here are my thoughts as I was watching…

The opening segment is about a woman who is really pretty early in her memory loss.  She is a hoot, as my mother would say.  She gets together with women friends in a singing group and they serenade a local nursing home.  The segment almost feels like a commercial for Aricept… “that’s where I got the idea to take pills for my memory” she says…and then later, we see her getting her prescription and swallowing the pills.   She seems pretty fine about things.  At one point she tells a friend “sometimes I can’t remember your name.”  “That’s okay,” her friend says. “I’ll tell you my name if you forget.”   THAT to me is HOPE.  More than the pill she takes in this segment, which will help for a couple months maybe.  But her friends will help her through to the end.

Another segment features a self proclaimed computer genuis, who isn’t anymore.  We see him in a therapy session (now THAT is opening yourself to a documentary!) in which he tells his doctor in so many words that he plans to kill himself as soon as he feels that he is “no longer really himself.”  It’s important to show this – as this really is what you hear people saying.  But it’s also important to show that this isn’t the only option.  And that that is painful for the family too.

There’s a segment on a woman living on a farm with her daughter.  She speaks only in a kind of sing-song sound and wanders…but we gradually realize that she was and remains an artist.  Her daughter photographs little “vignettes” that her mother makes and leaves around the farm for her to find.  And they are wonderous.  There is clearly emotional pain here – the daughter is so hard on herself when she shows her mother a stone and her mother puts it in her mouth.  But there is also mystery and connection on a deep level.  The sorrow here is when the daughter says she never had children…and you wonder who will be as tender of a caregiver to her as she is to her mother…

There’s an amazing segment about a man who happily whistles and sings and walks with a tender and loving companion…whom we learn is not his wife.  One of the most touching scenes I’ve seen on film about dementia is in this segment.  The camera follows the couple as they walk into an empty bedroom and lay down on the bed together.  The hold each other.  She strokes his chest as though they were newly weds.

His wife and daughter are rather astounding – they walk in and warmly greet the two of them and explain to her that he’ll be back soon.  They take him to a concert of his singing group – and in the car he asks over and over again where they are going.  When the choral leader introduces him as leading a song…we really don’t think it’s possible.  And then the miracle of music and memory – he sings clearly, confidently, beautifully – the entire song.   A standing ovation erupts.  This is community. This is the arts bringing people with dementia into community.  Wow.  And then in the car – he has no idea again.

There is a haunting segment about a woman experiencing hallucinations – which can be part of the Alzheimer’s experience.   There is a lovely moment in the beauty salon when a fellow resident tries to comfort her clearly paralyzing anxiety.   But one of the most difficult moments in the show is when her son struggles with his mother not remembering him.  It shouts out for the need to help families move beyond memory – just be there with her, talk to her in the now, try to comfort her anxiety.  It’s hard…but it is possible.

There is a segment on Cliff, magician and host of a beloved and long-running children’s television show.  His wife is elegant and loving – and makes you wonder why some people get this and not others?  Truly, why?  We watch him edge toward hospice, and then are privy to his final moment.  It is a true gift of this loving family to share this moment with others who will soon face it.  May they be fortunate enough to experience the quality of hospice care that Cliff did…

And after this powerful moment in hospice, we end where we began, with the woman taking her memory pills…leaving us anticipating the potential trajectories of her journey into Alzheimer’s.

The messages of this episode were more complex than I anticipated…they showed the incredible power of the arts to help people communicate with people with Alzheimer’s and dementia – and the incredible NEED for these programs.  MORE MORE MORE!  Right now, companionship, community and creative expression are doing much more than that pill.

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I’ll watch the HBO series with an open heart and mind – I swear I will.

But the reviews are certainly daunting.  The whole point of Forget Memory is that there is MORE to Alzheimer’s than tragedy.  That there is HOPE in science, but there is also HOPE in human beings – in our ability to learn to be in the company of people with dementia and to find meaning in that experience.  In one section of the book, I talk about the types of stories that are told about dementia in popular culture.  By far the most dominant one is TRAGEDY with science as HERO.  And from Alessandra Stanley’s review in the NYT’s, it sounds as though the HBO project not only falls into this category, but takes it to a new extreme.

Stanley points out that in the segment on developments in research, medical researchers enthusiastically suggest that they are very near a cure. One in particular calls it the most exciting area in medical research today.  But Stanley writes:

“Neither he nor the filmmakers deliver many caveats about the long, bumpy road from clinical trial to prescription pad. At times the collective exuberance is so persuasive that viewers have to remind themselves that there is as yet no way to prevent the disease or even slow its progress.

And that’s a problem. It suggests that “The Alzheimer’s Project” comes with an implicit agenda of morale boosting — and fund-raising — that could compromise a balanced understanding of this frightening and complicated disease.”

It’s a little heartbreaking.  In Forget Memory, I profile over 10 programs that are raising the quality of life of people with dementia and reducing stigma and fear – over 10 programs where HOPE is in humanity – our ability to reach each other, care for, honor, and learn from/with even those late in the disease.   But what we’ll hear in the Alzheimer’s Project looks like it loss of self, suicide as the only option, nobility of caregivers in a losing battle, and the heroism of science.   At least, after working so hard on a book for so long, its message will still be relevant when it comes out at the end of the month…

It’s fantastic to get the country talking about Alzheimer’s.  It is.  More people need to know about the services available, and more people need to ask how they can help.  But a message so powerfully frightening about the lived experience and so powerfully positive about science risks deepening the pit of despair when cure continues to be elusive rather than X’ing out hopelessness.

Also see the NYT’s background article on the Alzheimer’s Project.

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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.

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I’m seeing lots of traffic of people looking for who sings the song on the trailer to the HBO series on Alzheimer’s.  It’s Gary Jules.  Here’s a youtube clip.

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The big headline on the HBO Alzheimer’s Project says HOPELESS with the LESS crossed out.

This made me excited for this unprecedented, three-part series on this most important of issues.

But then I watched the trailer.  And it was HOPELESS.  I will watch and I’m sure hoping to find a little more hope – that isn’t only in the scientific “race for a cure”.

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What great fun I had curating a Festival of Short Films for the Gerontological Society of America, and coordinating the screening of a feature length film as well.  Over 200 people saw the shorts on Saturday night, and another full house gathered Sunday  night for the feature-length film.

The feature-length film was Andrew Jenks, Room 335.  Essentially, a truly good-hearted 19-year-old “kid” decides he wants to learn what it’s like to live in Assisted Living.  Over the course of 5 weeks, he learns about the view of life from 96 – filled with love, hope, fear, anger, and some downright bawdy humor.

We talk a good game about the importance of inter-generational friendships…Andrew Jenks, Room 335 takes it to a whole new level.  There are truly difficult moments here – especially when the lights go out in a storm and Andrew and his friends find themselves basically alone, trying to help some of the 300 residents.  And when Andrew finds himself praying with a dying friend.  And there are moments of pure joy and deep bonding friendship – sharing pudding over Jeopardy, getting his clock cleaned in Bingo, and trading mock punches with a fellow resident.

It was a real treat to watch this film with a big audience, whose laughter rolled and lifted you over some of the choppy camera work.  It’s an incredibly valuable tool to have in your teaching kit, as well as in your home dvd collection.  And heck, it’s only 20$.

The short films were equally well received.  I’ll say up front that I’m a little biased…my center distributes one of them.  We showed Kyoko Naturally, by Chris Thompson, Annie Lloyd by Cecelia Condit, Afloat by Erin Hudson, and Forgetfulness, a poem by Billy Collins and animated by HeadGear.

Kyoko is the story of the ebullient Kyoko Morris.  She and Thompson embark on a joint project.  He aims to create a film for his thesis project, and she aims to clear a path through her study.  People in the field of aging will diagnose Kyoko pretty quickly.  But the film helps us see more than a diagnosis…Kyoko is a dear friend and a role model for anyone in late life.

Annie Lloyd is Condit’s latest in film, in a career of creating gorgeous, thought provoking, Brother’s Grimm-like fairy tale films.  This one is a love poem to her mother and a meditation on her own aging process.  From her mother’s dying breath (a bold place to start the film), we learn that both mother and daughter see the world with the eyes of artists.  All the way through to the end, Annie Lloyd opens herself to learning about life – “God is an artist” she says as she sifts through her collection of brightly colored leaves.  She inspires us to be enchanted by our dreams, our memories, and the world around us.  Her final “bye-byes” as she blows kisses to the camera are as though she’s taking a curtain call to the applause of everyone she’s ever known – thankful, playful, and eager to see what’s next.

Afloat is a moving and brief (5 minutes) meditation on the aging body in water.  Bodies we are used to seeing a burdened and buckled, are buoyant and agile in spirit.  The film asks us to wash ourselves clean of our biases and fears about the aging body long enough to see a little differently.

Forgetfulness is available on Youtube for the world to see – and the world really should see it.  I won’t even describe it – just go watch it for yourself. You’ll love it.

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I haven’t seen it yet…but I hope to soon (don’t I always write that? I must have kids or something…).

Choke, a 2008 film by Clark Gregg, is based on a novel by Fight Club author Chuck Palahnuik.  In it, Angelica Huston plays a woman with dementia, whose son is the lost protagonist of the film.  Here’s what the NYT’s Stephen Holden said about her portrayal:

“Playing both the reckless, headstrong younger Ida and the frail but still-demanding older woman who mistakes Victor for everyone but himself when he visits, Ms. Huston gives a compelling portrayal of someone whose mind may be shredded but whose ferocious willpower remains undiminished.”

Dementia is definitely showing up more and more in the indie film world – it has significant metaphoric appeal, as well as real life appeal to those families going through the experience.  I look forward to the film version of The Story of Forgetting – which I hope signs on a visionary director!

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I love Billy Collin’s poetry, and particularly his readings of his poetry. And even more, animations of his poetry with him reading them. Take a look at this animated version of Forgetfulness on YouTube. It’s by Julian Gray of Headgear animation in Toronto.

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Diminished Capacity, with Alan Alda and Matthew Broderick playing uncle and nephew (respectively) with matching memory problems, is in limited release.  The NYT’s was lukewarm…I’ll write my own review after the film makes its way to Milwaukee…

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Looks like PBS will be rebroadcasting The Forgetting this summer.

I have mixed feelings.

On the one hand, the film certainly has been a powerful tool for raising awareness. The local feeds afterward, which feature more nuanced discussions of the experience of dementia, are very informative and moving.

But the film itself is pure tragic narrative. I almost felt like I was suffocating while I watched it (several times) as research for the book. What is missing from The Forgetting (television version) is any sort of sense of the resiliency of people with dementia. There is no meaning in their lives. There is no humor. No joy. This film chooses to tell the story of the tragedy of dementia and the exciting scientific race for answers.

The book (by David Shenk) is a skillful and inviting weaving of the complexities of Alzheimer’s. The website is equally complex and inviting. But the film scares me. And I fear it scares others more than it inspires them to respect and engage people with dementia – and in so doing, to be part of the social cure.

The Forgetting Rebroadcast and Panel Discussion on PBS

The critically acclaimed documentary, The Forgetting: A portrait of Alzheimer’s, will be rebroadcast this summer on PBS stations nationwide. Immediately after the 90-minute documentary, stations will air a 30-minute panel discussion about the disease moderated by David Hyde Pierce featuring a number of researchers with whom the Alzheimer’s Association works closely. The Association is working with the producers of the program to provide Chapters with tools you can use if you would like to leverage this opportunity to generate awareness of the disease and the Association. This will likely be ready the week of June 23. The program will air in most markets on Sunday, August 3 at 9PM ET. Check your local listings for exact airing times and dates in your market.

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