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Entertainment for Seniors
Documentary on Memory Loss of Aging Hits U.S. Film
Festivals
 Canadian
documentary was a top ten in Canada for 2005
April 27, 2006 It was a top film in Canada last
year and it is now bouncing around film festivals in the U.S., but it
may be hard for readers of SeniorJournal.com to watch. Memory for
Max, Claire, Ida and Company captures the experiences of residents,
families and caregivers at the Jewish Home for the Aged at the Baycrest
Centre for Geriatric Care in Toronto. It allows viewers to share their
humor, fear and anger about their failing minds.
It recently was presented at the International Film
Festival in Minneapolis and the reviewer for the Star Tribune wrote:
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Alzheimer's & Dementia
Nine Easy Steps to Fight Age-Related Memory Loss
By Tucker Sutherland, editor
April 27, 2006 If there is a universal concern
among senior citizens, it has to be the fear of mental decline.
Alzheimer's disease, of course, being the ultimate. The May issue of the
Harvard Men's Health Watch offers nine steps senior citizens and baby
boomers well, any
adult, actually - can take to keep their minds healthy. Every senior
should post this list where it will remind them often of these easy
steps we can all take to fight off age-related memory loss.
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"Certain to be difficult viewing for anyone who
qualifies for AARP, this pseudo-documentary following seven residents of
a Canadian nursing home is funny, maddening and ultimately
heartbreaking.
"In a story told without narration or interviews,
the elderly "stars" air their grievances and bare their frailties
through interaction with each other, their families and one particularly
compassionate social worker.
"It's not all about forgetfulness; sometimes it's
their perceived uselessness or crushing loneliness they rail against.
But, indeed, the most painfully affecting scenes are those that reveal
lives clouded by lost memories, moments that drive home the fragility of
human experience."
The reviewer gave it three and a half stars.
The film was produced and directed by Alan King
not to be confused with the late U.S. entertainer, but he is one of Canada's
most distinguished documentary filmmakers. One reason it has received a
great deal of attention in Canada is because of the success of an
earlier documentary on terminal illness. Dying at Grace was a top
ten film there in 2003. One reviewer calls him Canada s father of
actuality drama
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View the Trailer |
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Visit the Website of the Toronto International
Film Festival for more information and to view a trailer of the
film
click here. |
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"As with Kings previous documentaries, Memory
uses no narration or conventional interviews. He simply documents the
residents as they live with the effects of memory loss, placing us
squarely among them and up against their immediate realities," write the
reviewer for the London Canadian Film Festival.
"King shows people coping with the indignities of
assisted living, failing minds and children who don't visit enough, and
pays tribute to their abiding strength of character and obstinacy.
Max, Claire et al may experience memory loss a fact which King
records in heartbreaking and frightening detail but that doesnt mean
they dont possess desire, ambition or will. What emerges is a
powerfully moving and complex portrait of aging.
"Theres a warmth and an impressive sense of humor
in this film, for instance, the scene where when one resident claims
another's Alzheimer's was caused by marrying a goy. "It ends on an
extraordinary high note. It ends very happily, which is what nobody
would expect about a film on this subject of memory and aging.''
Allan King says about his film, My hope is that
Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company will shatter the stereotypes
that haunt us about the bogey word, dementia. We do not lose our
feelings, our identity, or our need for love, attention, and respect as
we lose cognitive skills. Our needs are magnified and deserve to be
met.
"The subjects of his documentary may experience
memory loss a fact which King records in heartbreaking and frightening
detail but that doesnt mean they dont possess desire, ambition or
will. What emerges is a powerfully moving and complex portrait of aging,
one filled with love, anger, flirtation, humor, ennui, and happiness,"
says a review at the Toronto Film Festival.
"Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company is
an effective but thoroughly depressing documentary
," writes David
Nusair of Reel Film Reviews.
"Filmmaker Allan King followed the lives of eight
Baycrest residents for four months, taking the stance of a passive
observer (meaning there are no interviews or even onscreen titles). This
method allows the viewer to take an objective, up-close look at what
day-to-day life is like for these people and the nurses that care for
them.
"On the flipside, though, it prevents us from
getting to know them terribly well; because most of these individuals
aren't quite all there mentally, we never really get much of an
understanding of what they were like in their youth (something that
could've easily been corrected by the inclusion of interviews with their
children and loved ones).
"Having said that, there are a number of genuinely
affecting moments here, with the most obvious example of this, involving
the death of a resident named Max.
"Claire, a close friend, reacts with sadness and
regret when informed of Max's demise. But due to her diminished mental
state, Claire must constantly be reminded of Max's passing (her shocked
reaction each time is heartbreaking). Moments like that make it easy
enough to overlook Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company's flaws, and
it's easy enough to see why King is considered Canada's foremost
documentarian."
> More on the International Film Festival in
Minneapolis
click here
> For more on the London Canadian Film
Festival
click here
> Read David Nusair's review at Reel Film
Reviews
click here.
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