films
Iris
2001
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfilms/film/iris
True story of the lifelong romance between novelist Iris Murdoch and her husband John Bayley, from their student days through her battle with Alzheimer's disease.
A song for Martin
2001, Sweden
https://www.amazon.com/Song-Martin-English-Subtitled/dp/B002WLESYO
This film follows the effects of caring on Barbara, the wife of Martin, who is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s not long after the couple marry.
Gerda
2017, Australia
https://films.radiowest.org/featured-series/gerda
A series of short films that offer portraits about Gerda and the family and friends that surround her.
Moving Pictures: Dementia Awareness for CALD communities
Short films in different languages covering Detection and Diagnosis, Navigating Care, and the Carer Journey.
Music
Awake but Always dreaming
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGl1kqiblMKC6q2WCsYGRQUs_-TPSoPW8
Hannah wrote this in response to her grandmother's dementia.
From Spotify: 'The northern Irish artist, producer and award winning composer Hannah Peel, is a restless and forward-thinking artist, joining dots between science, nature and the creative arts, through her explorative approach to electronic, classical and traditional music.'
photography
Cathy Greenblat
Check out this beautiful website – Cathy Greenblat specialises in dementia photography.
https://www.cathygreenblatphotography.com/
Cathy’s photos bring out the life, relationship, compassion, laughter, pain and care that is the experience of living with dementia.
The dementia journey can be valued, cherished if we stop thinking of it as loss and cherish presence – photos can be sad but they are also a way of connecting – when the photographer sees into the soul, they are photos of love and life.
Cathy opened her Loss, Love and Laughter exhibition at the Alzheimer’s Disease International Exhibit, University of London in 2012.
She explains on her website: ‘the big fur collared piece loaned to me was worn to cover a huge plastic brace I needed to wear to be protected after a major tumor had been discovered wrapped around my spinal column’. So much energy and commitment in the midst of deal with dementia. Cathy show us how to ‘live out loud’. Inspiring.
From Cathy's Website
Cathy Greenblat has engaged in a series of cross-cultural photographic projects on aging, dementia, and end of life care since 2001, and has been recognized as ‘the’ photographer of these difficult topics. Since retiring in 2002 she has published photography books and articles, and has had a global exhibit history and lecture program on these topics of international importance.
Quotations from Cathy’s website, illustrated by Gaynor. The bird photos were taken on Charlie and Gaynor’s farm, which had to be sold after ‘the diagnosis’. A lot of things have to change . . . photos are precious memories.