YouTube links below are clips from a forthcoming documentary called “Alive Inside,” about the power of music to restore some neurological function and quality of life to nursing home residents with Alzheimer’s Disease and other conditions.
The film follows Dan Cohen, a social worker who stumbled onto the power of loading iPods with the favorite music of nursing home residents and playing it for them when they were essentially unreachable in any other way. The effect of the music, as you can tell from the clips, often lasts considerably longer than the music itself. Oliver Sacks, the famous neurologist and author, narrates portions of the movie and explains how this is possible. Cohen has since founded a 501(c)3 non-profit called Music & Memory, with a mission to deliver free personalized iPods to nursing home residents across the country. They accomplish this with donations and donated used iPods. The film was previewed at the 2012 Pioneer Network Conference in Jacksonville, Florida. The film is not in theaters or available on DVD at this time, as the filmmakers want to take it on the film festival circuit later this year. View trailer clips from the film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyZQf0p73QM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd5S_hADV30
More clips are available on the Music & Memory website at: http://www.musicandmemory.org/index.html.