'Alive Inside' at Sundance
A few years ago an astonishing video that showed a man, who'd been uncommunicative in a nursing home for 10 years, suddenly singing and talking after listening via iPod to music from his past, went viral (and now has nearly 8 million views). The footage was part of Michael Rossato-Bennett's documentary, Alive Inside, premiering this weekend at Sundance.
I saw a version of the film a few years ago, an exhilarating look at social worker Dan Cohen's use of personalized music as a way to stir the memory and emotion of nursing home residents. (I've surely seen this with my own mother; cue up Ray Charles' "Come Rain or Come Shine," and joy ensues.) As Oliver Sachs says in the film: "Music is not luxury to them, but a necessity, and can have a power beyond anything else to restore them to themselves, and to others, at least for a while." The film's web site also has info on how to donate to Dan Cohen's Music & Memory Project. -- B.B.
I saw a version of the film a few years ago, an exhilarating look at social worker Dan Cohen's use of personalized music as a way to stir the memory and emotion of nursing home residents. (I've surely seen this with my own mother; cue up Ray Charles' "Come Rain or Come Shine," and joy ensues.) As Oliver Sachs says in the film: "Music is not luxury to them, but a necessity, and can have a power beyond anything else to restore them to themselves, and to others, at least for a while." The film's web site also has info on how to donate to Dan Cohen's Music & Memory Project. -- B.B.
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