Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory

source: Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory

I saw this film at the Cleveland International Film Festival in March of 2014 & was inspired to start the Rock Against Dementia Movement immediately after the screening.In the years since then it has developed into a Global Movement with World Rock Against Dementia Days being held every March. http://worldstockrocks.biz/rock-against-dementia/ This year there were 76 Events in 13 Countries across 3 Continents We ALL are connected to Music/Rhythm from Cradle to Grave, in fact the first sounds we hear are our Mother's heartbeat & voice. This film shows how that connection can be a blessing for those living with Dementia re- connecting them with forgotten moments & memories. Alive Inside shows many examples of how that works to the benefit of Dan Cohen and Music and Memory Alive Inside Director Michael Rossatto Bennett addresses many other peripheral issues regarding aging , how we treat our elders and the need for human connection and empathy. Here's the Spoiler Sadly Dan Cohen, the perceived Hero of the film isn't a hero at all. See details of his lawsuit here: https://www.generosity.com/education-fundraising/docu-subject-sues- filmmaker-save-alive-inside

OK, medicine can do a lot of things to make us fell better, heal a plenty of ours diseases and stuff but, can the medicine touch our soul? Nope. This documentary show us that music is universal and everyone needs music. Yes, we need it. Music touch our soul and can we fell better, the right music can make you relax more than a vicodin, for sure. This film show us that we are so used to the consume of drugs that we don't really need, and we don't care about it. Because somebody says that we need that and that is it. The elderly that are abandoned by their children in that facilities were removed from the world they know, and put on a sad and depressing reality, and just by the use of music they can feel alive again, can remember things again, feel human again. Finally, this film show us that small things like this can change a life, they make a difference in someone's life. So, be there for your parents, they won't be there for you forever.

Dementia affects around 46,8 millions of people around the world and Alzheimer Disease is the main cause of it. This devastating pathology takes away from you the most important treasure: your memories. You unlearn how to eat, how to dress, how to talk and even how to live. You become dependent. But if instead just medicines, music had an important healing power? In "Alive Inside", a Michael Bennett documentary, we saw the brilliant idea of Dan Cohen, a social worker, be successfully applied - listening music can renew dignity of those who have forgotten their own value. Released in 2014, this delightful film shows the reaction of Alzheimer's heroes and other dementias to listening to personalized music - they awake from a deep sleep and become alive again. It's joyful to see them dancing, singing and talk about it. Finally, we follow his fight in order that the highest number of nursing homes in the United States can adopt your therapy. Touching and inspiring, this movie teach us the sense of humanity, showing that difference can and should be done.

... and I'm still here watching, again, one of the most underrated documentaries ever produced by human beings. Every single time that I watch this I can't stop crying and laughing, laughing and crying, because the power of our brain is so limitless that it's scary. I wish I could have the power to make every single human being watching it. Our brain is the biggest, the greatest and the most powerful organ that we have and way more powerful that any computer, IA, robot and living being on planet earth. Please take care of it, you got only 1 and the potential is right there inside you, it's just up to you how and when discover its great power.

I saw the trailer for the film on YouTube. As I'm just beginning a new career in aged care, I've been inspired to use music with residents - recorded music, singing to them*, and involving them in community singalongs. While my experience has been brief so far, I have seen in some residents the transformation which music gives (though nowhere near as dramatic as Henry in the clip). *I'm not much of a singer, but that doesn't make a difference if I can find the right songs. Inspired by the clip, I bought the DVD. It was one of the most positive films I've seen for a long time. It brought tears to the eyes seeing some of the transformation brought about by music. It was wonderful, seeing a way that some joy can be brought back to some people. I know that a film like that will only show the most positive stories, and I've seen first hand that many more people will not have the reactions shown. But there has been enough of a transformation in some of the stories shown to continue to inspire me to look for opportunities to give just a little bit of joy to some people. Thank you so much to the filmmakers and storymakers for showing the possibilities.

The discovery that music, when carefully selected for and played to individual dementia patents, can bring them out of their depressed stupor, and/or calm them down when agitated -- is simply profound. The documentary is very professional and does a fine job of illuminating this new and major movement throughout the "rest homes" of the world -- one which even eliminates the need for a rest home in some cases. If you were afraid to see yet another "depressing account" of the state of our elderly -- don't be! This is anything but depressing (for the most part) as it demonstrates what is possibly the greatest (and mostly hidden) wealth within each of our minds: music. Seems that a sense of and remembrance of music is one of the last things to go in our brains when we age. Not only is the music shown to be enjoyable by elderly, but, as shown succinctly in this film, the right music can unlock many other memories, leading to an obvious joy of heart. Watch it and be truly amazed, even crying with joy.

Music is powerful and the sounds are unpredictable. "Alive Inside" takes us inside some American nursing homes and it shows some of this hidden power and the healing effect of music on patients which suffer different levels of dementia and Alzheimer's. We see through their eyes, how they were kinda dead and, suddenly, smiles and that spark on the eyes. With music, they can live again. The movie is about "Music & Memory", Dan Cohen's nonprofit organization. He brings iPod's and earphones for some patients, and plays their favorite music. The results on screen are fabulous. We know our music carries memories and it defines part of our personality. These patients combat memory loss, by dementia or Alzheimer's, and just by playing the musics, we can see they come up with things they thought were lost. We're exposed to some awakening and delightful moments, with an uplifting atmosphere of hope and joy passed to us, with some sensitive and heart touching scenes. There's too much feeling on it! I believe one of the best points on the documentary is Rossato- Bennett's work on the cinematography. He followed Dan to check and film his job. What he didn't knew until the first days, is that he was going to spent a couple of years with him, and there are some astonishing pictures on the screen. His works on close ups and the pace of the doc are fantastic. But, it's all about the music, and the key point is the soundtrack, made by the collection of some patients music. We travel in time on gospel music, some blues and jazz, classical music. The soundtrack is brilliant. It couldn't be different. Since everything isn't great, there are some important preoccupations with the future shown. The planet is getting older, and we're not prepared to it. There's no interest today on taking care of the elders. Geriatricians are fading and in some years from today, we will see an old population, without the needed assistance. People today don't even seem to care with this. Dan got huge negative feed backs when he was trying to get some donations improve and spread his organization on the country. Here, we see with our eyes, how music affects on people, how it enhances the life of the elders, but we don't even have huge research's on this field. We simply don't care with elderly people. Music is everything. Music is identity and memories. Musics are sad and happy, it hurts, heals. It works on us in deep levels and so many ways we can't even imagine. We all have our musics and our memories, and we're the ones who should protect it. When you forget, you don't leave a memory. You leave yourself, aside on the roads of life, and it's okay. Our brain can't hold on too much information, we need to leave some things on the way, but remember: if you want it back somehow, just play your music. Musics are feelings, and to feel is to be alive.

"Alive Inside", written and directed by Michael Rossato-Bennett. Following the 2014's films on degenerative diseases came this impressive documentary. Unlike medical drugs, the power that the sounds have in our brains and especially when produced with proportion, line, rhythm and all those assumptions of geometry that turn into development and therapy. Almost nothing is known about the real causes but the effects of music are more than obvious, hence all poetic speeches that are made happily around since we are still at the stage of believing and not of knowing. A revolution is about to happen, any day, a revelation. It is touching and I was unable to give less than 10 in 10.

ALIVE INSIDE: A STORY OF MUSIC AND MEMORY is a scientifically emotional film about our basic abilities as humans:  communication and connections.  Over a three year period, filmmaker Michael Rosatto-Bennett followed Dan Cohen as he visited various nursing facilities.  What takes place on the screen seems almost impossible.  It is truly magical.  Patients with little connection to people and their environment, some with no recognition of their own adult children, put a set of headphones on, plug into an iPod programmed with songs of their generation and PRESTO! they come to life.  They talk about what they are listening to; they reminisce about the time period; and they talk about their feelings. But most importantly, they are connected to people.  With music, they come back to the world around them and are living again. I know this sounds like magic, but neurology actually supports this observation.  With the disease of dementia, the hippocampus or memory area of our brains, is affected.  It looks a bit like a bunch of spider webs throwing off the pathways in our brain, making it impossible for proper connections to take place. But music memory isn't stored here.  Music reaches all the different areas of our brain and stimulates synapses or fireworks of communication so that we "wake up!"  Music touches us all on so many different levels, and Dan Cohen with his endeavors has helped to bring life back into these older folks who had given up and recoiled within themselves. We baby-boomers will be inhabiting this earth, growing exponentially over the next 2 decades.  Don't we want to help our own parents age more gracefully as well as set the precedent for our own care in the coming years?  See this film and empower yourself.