As the US embassy, in partnership with the American Chamber of Commerce Qatar, will flag off the second annual Discover America Week Qatar 2016, film-lovers of Doha can rejoice as Sundance Film Festival award-winning documentarian Michael Rossato-Bennett’s moving work Alive Inside hits the city as do a series of masterclasses.
From February 15-22, Discover America Week Qatar, which celebrates the US-Qatar partnership, will bring sharp focus to variety, diversity and breadth of American goods, services, and products, and present a slice of America to Qatar. As part of the American Film Showcase, Rossato-Bennett and Oscar-nominated film producer Alix Madigan will conduct screenings and masterclasses in Doha from February 18-22 – more details are on the US embassy website.
Setting off the film programme is a screening of Rossato-Bennett’s film Alive Inside, which will be held in partnership with the Doha Film Institute at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA), at 7.30pm on February 18 – you can reserve your ticket on the DFI website.
The award-winning 78-minute indie documentary tracks how New York-based Dan Cohen, founder of the nonprofit organisation Music & Memory that brings personalised music into the lives of the elderly and infirm, fights against a broken healthcare system to demonstrate music’s ability to combat memory loss and restore a deep sense of self to those suffering from it.
According to the synopsis on the film’s website, Alive Inside is a joyous cinematic exploration of music’s capacity to reawaken our souls and uncover the deepest parts of our humanity. “Rossato-Bennett chronicles the astonishing experiences of individuals around the country who have been revitalised 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,” the note says.
Rossato-Bennett visits family members who have witnessed the miraculous effects of personalised music on their loved ones, and offers illuminating interviews with experts including renowned neurologist and best-selling author Oliver Sacks (Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain) and musician Bobby McFerrin (Don’t Worry, Be Happy), the note further adds.
“Alive Inside’s inspirational and emotional story left audiences humming, clapping and cheering at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award.”
In an elaborate note on the production of their documentary, the Alive Inside team reveals how its journey to the screen started three years before it was made, when filmmaker Rossato-Bennett met Cohen. “Through Cohen, Rossato-Bennett met Henry, a 94-year-old dementia patient who had been provided with an iPod loaded with a selection of music tailored especially for him.”
A scene in Alive Inside? has Henry sitting listless and disconnected until earphones are placed on his head. “Almost immediately, his eyes focus, his posture straightens and his face lights up as he listens to some of his favourite music. Henry even sings along with Cab Calloway, the jazz superstar famous for his rapidfire scat singing,” the note describes.
“Henry had basically been sitting in a hallway for 10 years with his head down,” says Rossato-Bennett, “We found out Henry loved Gospel and Cab Calloway so we put it on an iPod for him. When we gave him his music for the first time, he just woke up. He rose out of his chair and started conducting. He went from dead to alive in front of my eyes. It was like he was reoccupying his own body, his own self!”
Henry’s startling response, the note explains, is a graphic demonstration of research showing that music engages the brain more fully than any other type of stimulus. Scientists have found that the entire brain lights up when exposed to music, especially the areas that correspond to pleasure, movement — and memory.
“One of the big problems we have in elder care is a massive overreliance on antipsychotic drugs,” Rossato-Bennett further says in the note, “Right now, over 20% of all patients in nursing homes and at home are being prescribed these very dangerous drugs, but there’s a great deal of new evidence that personalised music can replace these drugs for people like Henry.”
“Through music, we have the power to help millions of people awaken to who they are and what they can be,” the filmmaker says.
RIGHT NOTE: Stills from the film Alive Inside. The film will be screened at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA), at 7.30pm on February 18 u2013 you can reserve your ticket on the DFI website.