Alive Inside is a joyous exploration into our relationship with music and how it can reawaken our souls to discover the deepest parts of humanity. This stirring documentary follows social worker Dan Cohen as he fights against a broken healthcare system to demonstrate music’s ability to combat memory loss and return a deep sense of self to those suffering from it.
Through illuminating conversations with experts such as renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks and musician Bobby McFerrin, and astonishing experiences with patients around the country, who have been revitalized by their love of music, director Michael Rossato-Bennett has crafted an inspiring, feel-good cinematic experience that sweeps audiences up in its uplifting and moving story. Winner of the Audience Award at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, Alive Inside leaves us humming, clapping and cheering as music lifts the audience’s and its characters’ very souls.
It won’t cure dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, but music can nevertheless help sufferers “wake up” their memories, reveals a moving documentary presented at the Sundance Film Festival.
Alive Inside: A Story of Music & Memory, the debut feature film by Michael Rossato-Bennett, follows the efforts of one man to convince Americans of the benefits of music on people with dementia or Alzheimer’s.
Dan Cohen, founder of the non-profit organization Memory & Music, arms himself with headphones and music players as he shows – to the surprise of care-givers – how patients locked in silence and lost in the maze of dementia seem to find some memories and feelings when they hear the music they love.
With the cameras watching on, many patients begin to talk, smile, sing and even dance, as their families look on stunned.
