As film maker Michael Rossato-Bennett says:
Our dream of waking the world, helping them see the life that is there to be awakened in our elders and ourselves, is now, one very big, huge step closer to coming true!!!!
Yesterday Michael announced that his film, Alive Inside, was selected as one of sixteen documentaries for the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. Alive Inside documents Dan Cohen's Music and Memories project, which I wrote about on this blog last May (click here for the original blog post). Dan had been working on a program of delivering iPods to people with dementia, along with earphones and individualized playlists. Based on his belief in the power of music for people with dementia, Dan started bringing iPods to nursing homes, each loaded with music selected for individualized tastes, to see what difference the music would make in the lives of residents with dementia..
Michael began filming Dan's project, and he became so enthused that he went well beyond the original intent of a short video to describe the Music and Memories project to a full length documentary with multiple dimensions, including not only Dan but also Dr. Peter Whitehouse, Dr Oliver Sachs, etc.
Michael began filming Dan's project, and he became so enthused that he went well beyond the original intent of a short video to describe the Music and Memories project to a full length documentary with multiple dimensions, including not only Dan but also Dr. Peter Whitehouse, Dr Oliver Sachs, etc.
No doubt you have seen the clip from the film that features Henry, who "comes alive" after listening to music that has been specially selected for him and loaded on an iPod. The clip went viral and over 6 million people have seen it. If you haven't seen it, here is one version of the clip (it's worth the few minutes you will invest watching it, as the transformation in Henry is nothing short of miraculous).
Dan continues to grow the Music and Memories project. There are staff training programs around the US and Canada, where people learn to help the elderly make meaningful individualized playlists (it's not as easy as it sounds but they have it broken down into component parts that can be mastered relatively easily). Other groups abroad are also developing iPod donation programs by children and adults, church groups, bridge clubs, etc!!!
The Alive Inside film has a new website that is well worth your time to look at: http://aliveinside.us/
Congratulations again to both Michael and Dan on their life-changing work!
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