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.”
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