PBS Documentary: You’re Looking at Me Like I Live Here and I Don’t

Many of you know the work I do with my Young Advocates group, YAAA! Young Advocates for the Alzheimer's Association.  Kathy Ritchie found me through this group last year and has had her own, massive, family struggles with dementia.  I want to help spread the word about this documentary airing THIS THURSDAY, March 29th, 2012 AT 10PM (check local listings) on PBS.  Anyone able to re-post via Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc...  Please do so!  Kathy interviewed the filmmaker and her personal blog, www.MyDementedMom.com contains a Q&A with him.  I am sure it is a great documentary and I think and hope it will help shed some light on the disease and what it's like living with it.

Thank you for sharing Kathy!

Film Description:

You’re Looking at Me Like I Live Here and I Don’t is the first documentary filmed exclusively in an Alzheimer’s care unit, told from the perspective of someone suffering from the disease.

Lee Gorewitz's search is for more than a word, or a memory, or a familiar face. It is a quest for understanding. She wanders through her unit. She gazes through windows, examines other residents’ rooms, and strains to see outside the front entrance.

She scours family photographs in her bedroom, unable to identify herself in the pictures. Combing through the items in her closet, she mistakes an everyday outfit for her wedding dress. She finds a birthday card but cannot recognize that she is the “Mom” to whom the card is addressed. Exasperated and missing her children, Lee embraces a make-believe family of stuffed animals.

Although she lacks the ability to grasp memories, Lee’s attempts at recollection demonstrate unusual and poetic candor. Reflecting on her birthplace, she says, “Brooklyn, it’s right behind you.” Regarding her deceased husband, she professes, “How do I even say it? The air — was very good.” Considering love, she intones, “That’s a damn good thing to work with.”