ALIVE INSIDE documentary
This uplifting documentary shows how music that resonates deeply with a person or evokes strong emotional connections revives memories in people with dementia.
“Gloriously inspirational,” critic Duane Byrge writes in The Hollywood Reporter.
“Packs as potent a simple emotional wallop as anything you’ll see — or hear — anywhere,” Geoff Pevere writes in The Globe and Mail.
“Without the use of a single CGI effect, you see literal miracles happening,” David Noh writes in Film Journal International. GCI stands for computer-generated imagery.
The film follows social worker Dan Cohen, who decides on a whim to bring iPod portable media players to a nursing home.
To his and the staff’s surprise, many residents suffering from memory loss, due to Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia, awaken — the lights go on behind their eyes — when they listen to music from their past.
With great excitement, Cohen turns to renowned neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks, who then works with Cohen to investigate the mysterious ways music functions inside our brains and our lives.
The film, by Michael Rossato-Bennett, also follows Cohen as he fights the medical establishment and Big Pharma to demonstrate the power of music that holds special significance or emotional connection for an individual to combat memory loss and restore a deep sense of self.
The 2014 film runs 1 hour 18 minutes and is not rated by the Motion Picture Association. Its 12 critic and festival awards include the Sundance Film Festival’s Audience Award as the favorite movie chosen by festival attendees.
The “Alive Inside” trailer can be found on YouTube at tinyurl.com/AliveInside-MoviesWSpirit.
The Kingston screening will be followed by a discussion. Refreshments will be served.
Attendees over age 12 are asked to contribute $10 a person.
Movies With Spirit screenings comply with all federal, state and local health and safety protocols, including those of the screening venues.
The monthly Movies With Spirit series, organized by Gerry Harrington of Kingston, seeks to stimulate joy and wonder, inspire love and compassion, and help people understand their connection with others and with life itself. It supports all cultures, faiths and beliefs while transcending them.
The films are shown in diverse places of worship and culture in Ulster and Dutchess counties at 7 p.m., on the third Saturday of every month. Movies With Spirit has no religious affiliation.
For more information about the “Alive Inside” screening and the rest of the series, call Harrington at 845-389-9201 or write to him at gerryharrington@mindspring.com.
