Filmmaker Michael Rossato-Bennett’s “Alive Inside” is a documentary won the Sundance Audience Award for Best Documentary earlier this year. While largely focusing on individuals with Alzheimer's and dementia, the doc also touches upon the universal healing power of music while examining the state of healthcare in America. The documentary “contains a tiny revolution within its message, and will likely end up being one of the most important documentaries of the year,” Playlist contributor Nikola Grozdanovic wrote earlier this week and that’s some damn fine praise. Landmark Theaters is supporting the doc’s initiative to increase iPod donations and awareness for Music & Memory, a program designed by Dan Cohen (featured in the film), to enhance quality of life for those suffering with Alzheimer’s, by providing long-term care residents with personal music designed to soothe agitation, uplift spirits and even eliminate the need for some medications. We’ve got an exclusive.
- 7/24/2014
- by The Playlist
- The Playlist
Elderhood. Is that even a thing? You grow from the innocence of childhood through the experiences of adulthood and then...you just get old. Nobody likes to talk about that. Kids dream about growing up so they can do all the adult things they see adults do, and adults wish they can turn back the clock and be kids again. Have you ever heard anyone say, “Man, I cannot wait to get old. I’m going to have the sweetest walker ever.” From Grandpa Simpson to reactions after an 82-year-old Clint Eastwood talked to an empty chair, American culture has always greeted old age as comic relief from a distance. But as one of the most insightful interviewees says in “Alive Inside,” “American Culture is wrong.” Director Michael Rossato-Bennett and the movie's main subject, Dan Cohen, have given a voice to millions of people, hidden and forgotten in those corners...
- 7/21/2014
- by Nikola Grozdanovic
- The Playlist
The film opened on Friday, July 18, 2014 at the Landmark Sunshine Theater in New York City, and on 80 screens throughout the United States.
Producer, Regina Scully, refers to “Alive Inside” as “the little film that could.”
The film demonstrates how music connects, heals, and restores lives.
“Alive Inside” starts out with the founder of Music and Memory, and Social Worker, Dan Cohen, interviewing a 90 year old woman sitting in a wheelchair explaining how she can’t remember anything anymore.
Dementia is a loss of brain function that affects memory, thinking, language, judgment, and behavior. People with dementia may have problems with short-term memory, keeping track of a purse or wallet, paying bills, planning and preparing meals, remembering appointments or wandering out of their neighborhood.
As people age, it is not uncommon for them to loose their independence, loose their dignity, and may even be dealing with loss of loved ones as well.
Over the course of three years, Dan visited many Nursing Homes in the NYC area including, Cobble Hill, Patterson Extended Care Nassau University, Li State Veterans Home, and North Shore University Hospital-lij, and placed headphones connected to nano-sized iPods downloaded with songs from their past, on those diagnosed with diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Dementia, Multiple Sclerosis and Schizophrenia. As we all know music takes you back in time. When you listen to a song from a certain time in your life, you reflect back on where you were, who you were associating with, and the memories that you shared. When the elders listened to songs that they were familiar with, songs that they had grown up with, and maybe even their favorite song of all time, the results were outstanding.
Their faces lit up, they started dancing and singing along, and even became emotional. It was as if a new person was awakened. The music had meaning, and connected them to memories from the past and who they are as human beings. They were able to leave the daily routine and their illnesses behind and go into a world that they were familiar with on their own terms. By getting to know the person first, and helping people find that song, the nursing home population was able to sing and live again.
“Music and Memory” has grown from 56 nursing homes to 650 locations and has a core belief that as the population ages, they will need to do so healthily.
“It takes me back to my school days.”
“I like Cab Calloway.”
“It reminds me of riding a bike, which is how I used to earn my living.”
“Music and Memory” is a non-profit, and the nano and headphones cost approximately $50.00 each. Old iPods or financial donations are appreciated.
http://www.aliveinside.us/#land...
Producer, Regina Scully, refers to “Alive Inside” as “the little film that could.”
The film demonstrates how music connects, heals, and restores lives.
“Alive Inside” starts out with the founder of Music and Memory, and Social Worker, Dan Cohen, interviewing a 90 year old woman sitting in a wheelchair explaining how she can’t remember anything anymore.
Dementia is a loss of brain function that affects memory, thinking, language, judgment, and behavior. People with dementia may have problems with short-term memory, keeping track of a purse or wallet, paying bills, planning and preparing meals, remembering appointments or wandering out of their neighborhood.
As people age, it is not uncommon for them to loose their independence, loose their dignity, and may even be dealing with loss of loved ones as well.
Over the course of three years, Dan visited many Nursing Homes in the NYC area including, Cobble Hill, Patterson Extended Care Nassau University, Li State Veterans Home, and North Shore University Hospital-lij, and placed headphones connected to nano-sized iPods downloaded with songs from their past, on those diagnosed with diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Dementia, Multiple Sclerosis and Schizophrenia. As we all know music takes you back in time. When you listen to a song from a certain time in your life, you reflect back on where you were, who you were associating with, and the memories that you shared. When the elders listened to songs that they were familiar with, songs that they had grown up with, and maybe even their favorite song of all time, the results were outstanding.
Their faces lit up, they started dancing and singing along, and even became emotional. It was as if a new person was awakened. The music had meaning, and connected them to memories from the past and who they are as human beings. They were able to leave the daily routine and their illnesses behind and go into a world that they were familiar with on their own terms. By getting to know the person first, and helping people find that song, the nursing home population was able to sing and live again.
“Music and Memory” has grown from 56 nursing homes to 650 locations and has a core belief that as the population ages, they will need to do so healthily.
“It takes me back to my school days.”
“I like Cab Calloway.”
“It reminds me of riding a bike, which is how I used to earn my living.”
“Music and Memory” is a non-profit, and the nano and headphones cost approximately $50.00 each. Old iPods or financial donations are appreciated.
http://www.aliveinside.us/#land...
- 7/20/2014
- by Sharon Abella
- Sydney's Buzz
Aging is a problem. Not necessarily the fact of getting old, which does represent its challenges, but more the fact that number of seniors in the general population is going up, while the number of people under the age of 65 is going down. Population by age used to look like a pyramid, with the large base at the bottom made up of young people. But that pyramid now looks more like a column, evenly spread out all the way through. In a short time, about 30-35 years, that pyramid will be inverted, bringing with it a whole host of issues. It would seem then that now is a good time to start thinking about elder care in new ways, and one researcher in Alive Inside thinks he’s tapped into something special to help combat not just old age ailments like dementia and Alzheimer’s, but to enhance quality of life for seniors everywhere.
- 7/19/2014
- by Adam A. Donaldson
- We Got This Covered
Practically guaranteed to elicit tears within its first five minutes, Alive Inside — a documentary about activist Dan Cohen's attempts to get nursing homes to use music as a part of their care regimen for those afflicted with dementia, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's diseases — is nonetheless more than just a tearjerker.
Opening with clips of an unwell elderly woman and man becoming rejuvenated, physically and mentally, after listening to the favorite songs of their youth, director Michael Rossato-Bennett's moving film argues music's therapeutic value on slowly deteriorating minds.
This treatment is the brainchild of Cohen, whose Music & Memory non-profit organization advocates such methods as a way to not only relight the spark of senior citizens cast ...
Opening with clips of an unwell elderly woman and man becoming rejuvenated, physically and mentally, after listening to the favorite songs of their youth, director Michael Rossato-Bennett's moving film argues music's therapeutic value on slowly deteriorating minds.
This treatment is the brainchild of Cohen, whose Music & Memory non-profit organization advocates such methods as a way to not only relight the spark of senior citizens cast ...
- 7/16/2014
- Village Voice
This year's Sundance Audience Award winner, Michael Rossato-Bennett's feature "Alive Inside," now has a trailer. The film follows social worker Dan Cohen's effort to use music, rather than traditional medication, to combat the deteriorating effects of aging. Watch below to hear him defiantly declare "American culture is wrong: there is life beyond adulthood," accompanied by the voice of neurologist and author Oliver Sacks and scenes of the subjects with loved ones. The film appears to be at once a tear jerker and sentimental uplifter, with excerpts from nostalgic home movies as well as images of the hospitalized elderly reinvigorated by the sounds of music, which seemingly returns to them their lost memories. Indiewire's mixed B- review of "Alive Inside," called the film "often tonally divergent, but still provides an affecting look at a growing therapeutic cause." Distributed by Bond/260, "Alive Inside" will open in New York theaters on July 18th.
- 6/10/2014
- by Melina Gills
- Indiewire
Not unlike the Beanie Baby popularity of the 90s, it appears that 2014 batch of Sundance docs are all the craze among indie and docu distributors. The latest rights snap up is comes from the Bond/360 folks, who after their first release (Particle Fever) have landed the Sundance Audience Award winner Alive Inside from first time docu-helmer Michael Rossato-Bennett. A firm July 18th release has been assigned.
Gist: Alzheimer’s and dementia are a reality for an increasing and often unseen population. Alive Inside follows Dan Cohen, a social worker who decides on a whim to bring iPods to a nursing home. To his and the staff’s surprise many residents suffering from memory loss seem to awaken deeply locked memories when they listen to music from their past. With great excitement, Dan turns to renowned neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks, and together they investigate the mysterious way music functions inside our brains and our lives.
Gist: Alzheimer’s and dementia are a reality for an increasing and often unseen population. Alive Inside follows Dan Cohen, a social worker who decides on a whim to bring iPods to a nursing home. To his and the staff’s surprise many residents suffering from memory loss seem to awaken deeply locked memories when they listen to music from their past. With great excitement, Dan turns to renowned neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks, and together they investigate the mysterious way music functions inside our brains and our lives.
- 4/9/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Bond/360 just picked up the distribution rights to 2014 Sundance Audience Award-winner for U.S. Documentary "Alive Inside: A Story of Music & Memory." Michael Rossato-Bennett's debut feature chronicles the struggle of social worker Dan Cohen as he pushes back against a broken healthcare system to demonstrate music’s ability to combat memory loss. Bond/360 is working with Impact Partners to release this powerful documentary. Check out Indiewire's review of the Sundance hit here. Read More: How I Shot "Alive Inside; A Story of Music & Memory" "I love this film and I love Bond/360," said Impact Partners Co-Founder, Dan Cogan. “It's rare that you can work on a documentary that has the potential to really break out into the mainstream, and Alive Inside has that potential in spades. The master film marketers at Bond/360 are the ideal partners for us to make that happen." The film will open in theaters...
- 4/7/2014
- by Taylor Lindsay
- Indiewire
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