Summer Blockbusters, Creative Aging style
I’m not a fan of most blockbuster movies but somehow summer and movies are inexorably linked in my mind. Beach books too (but I’ll save that for another post!). And so movies were already on my mind when recently several caught my attention.
The first was a few weeks ago in the Washington, D.C. area as I came across the American Film Insitute’s festival, SilverDocs. Three movies were singled out as being particularly worthy of attention in reviews and all three were about the experience of aging! How lucky can we be. As one review was titled : Close-up On the Elderly.
The next reminder about movies and aging in a e-mail when someone I know admitted seeing Away From Her over the weekend. Entertainment can simply be that, entertaining but it is special when entertainment can teach as well as amuse or titillate. Away From Her is just such.
Another recent tap was in my local paper with a notice about a graduate student at a local university whose made a personal story into documentary on living with Alzheimer’s Disease and front lobal dementia. Dear Dad I haven’t been able to see but it is gaining local (and or regional) acclaim. Let’s hope it gets shown nearby, and soon!
A synergistic moment
I know I may pay a bit more attention to Alzheimer’s and dementia than most people but it seems the world may be catching up with me! If the world is defined as central North Carolina, any way. It isn’t just that some recent events in town have spotlighted the perspective of people with dementia (through some of the events in the Center for Creative Aging – North Carolina‘s own Create & Celebrate) but then the local powerhouse research university, UNCG, has announced a conference for later this summer: Living Well with Memory Loss: Finding the Balance. If this isn’t enough to think that dementia is finally getting its due then consider the world of fiction. Not one but two books tackle this difficult subject: Still Alice by Lisa Genova and Samantha Harvey‘s The Wilderness. I rave about Still Alice every chance I get and now I’m eagerly awaiting my experience with Jake, the main character in Harvey’s novel. A recent book review in Books & Culture alerted me to Harvey’s book (thank you David Brooks for introducing me to them through your column!).
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