Review of Alive Inside (2014) by Wayne C — 01 Jun 2016

The short documentary tells the story of a scientist who is trying to raise awareness to an alternative therapy to mental illness, wich is based on music. In several experiments when some elder people on nursing homes with dementia or alzheimer were given headsets and ipods with music they used to like their behavior improved and also some memories were suddenly enlightened again.

The link between music and emotion is very strong. We are often surrounded by music when we love, dance, study, exercice, drive, cook. Some music strike us and make some moments or peoples deep remarkable.Thats the path Alive Inside navigates.

One of the main points I'd like to stress however is how harmful is to some elder people to live in nursing home, sad, doped, struggling with mental isolation because the outward world has became a torment. The doc criticizes this structure in health care and in western society where elders and tradiction have no function.

Becouse of alzheimer my grandmother died twice. Before her actual death she lost her memories, then her identidy was not long there. When her sons and daughters, my uncles and aunts, would visit her it was no more a moment of joy, but full of worries. My father's family decided not to send her to a nursing home, it would be abandon they'd say.

She lived untill 96 and on her last decade the decease just got worse. Whenever I visited her, she looked at my face as I was a funny stranger and I used to say "come on, don't you remenber you favorite grandson?", just to hear the name of my counsins instead - that was unfair. I just wanna explain how music still connect us: she was always with a little radio listen to some religious broadcast (she was a passionate catholich) and thereby, because this kind of song resembles her, I listen to some once in a while althoug i'm atheist.