Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory is a 2014 American documentary film directed and produced by Michael Rossato-Bennett. The movie's website summarizes the film this way: "Alive Inside is a joyous cinematic exploration of music’s capacity to reawaken our souls and uncover the deepest parts of our humanity. Filmmaker Michael Rossato-Bennett chronicles the astonishing experiences of individuals around the country who have been revitalized through the simple experience of listening to music. His camera reveals the uniquely human connection we find in music and how its healing power can triumph where prescription medication falls short."
I have been preaching for a while
that the genre of documentaries has come of age in a big way over the past
decade or so. In some instances, they have easily surpassed the average
fictional movie in quality and critical reviews. Recently I had the unexpected pleasure
of attending the local premiere of Alive Inside, which turned out
to be yet another instance of documentary excellence. I say unexpected because
I had actually braced myself for a very difficult subject matter: dementia and
Alzheimer's disease are not exactly the happiest of topics, especially
when it hits so close to home (both my parents have been diagnosed with dementia).
But as the film gods would have it, something very inspiring happened:
Michael Rossato-Bennett has managed to turn the far-from-happy-ending of our
fragile human condition into a story of hope.
Before
I get to the hope part, let me make sure you understand just
how relevant this story is. First, according to the Alzheimer's Association in
the US (and
I would be willing to bet the following numbers are relevant across the world), one out of three people dies with
Alzheimer's or another dementia. Let that sink in for a moment. Among you and
just two other people closest to you, one will die with dementia and/or
Alzheimer's. Every sixty-seven seconds, someone is diagnosed with
Alzheimer's.
Like
the "Six Million Dollar Man", we can keep improving physical
technologies, extending the official life of our bodies with every surgical,
chemical, or biogenetic breakthrough. But as for the real life
inside of us, we haven't a clue. We know that we have a brain, which
we prefer to call a mind, and that it is somehow intertwined with something we
awkwardly call a soul. As for any breakthroughs in understanding
where or what a soul is, we might as well be getting excited about fire and the
wheel. Ever since we began suspecting that our mere bodies were not the real
essence of life, we have collectively done almost nothing to understand that
essence, never mind be able to extend its tenure inside our physical bodies.
Spiritual and religious thought leaders may disagree with me here. But with all
due respect to them, our mass warehousing of our elders speaks to the contrary.
Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical and surgical industries have been given all but
carte blanche to do whatever they see fit with our aging souls.
Enter some hope,
via a man named Dan Cohen. Cohen is a social worker and founder of a nonprofit
organization called Music and Memory. In order to capture
the significance of what Cohen has discovered, try this mental exercise
yourself: think of the last time you stumbled upon an old, favorite song or
musical piece you had not heard in years, and think about the instant reaction
it stirred in you. Now imagine being in a drugged state of partial
consciousness, for what could be a month or a decade -- you're not sure.
Imagine finally, someone walking up to you, gently placing a set of headphones
on your ears, and playing that same song or musical piece...
"There is no pill that does that..."
- Alive Inside
