When I started to watch Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory, I thought that I already saw it, but I was thinking of Nova: Musical Minds, which originally aired June 30, 2009. Both documentaries feature Oliver Sacks and consider the objective benefits of music therapy, however Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory has a more activist slant. The documentary primarily focuses on Dan Cohen, the founder of Music & Memory, which is a nonprofit organization that distributes iPods with personalized digital music to reflect a patient’s musical interest as a form of therapy. This medical treatment that sparks memory, increases activity and improves the capacity of social interaction.
Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory starts by showing Alzheimer’s patients, people with mental disabilities and rape victims benefit from the therapy then uses the proof to sneak in a critique of the way that American segregates the elderly from society and treats aging as an illness. It is a fair criticism, but does not seem like a necessary point to encourage the audience to donate iPods and encourage nursing homes to implement the therapy.
The documentary needed to forgo the ambition to be feature length because near the end it gets repetitive when we get a recap of what we just saw then see others’ reaction to the footage. Yeah, I was there. It was emotionally resonating to see people emerge from the mental fog and connect with other human beings. It transforms the advocacy into infomercial and cheapens the impact. Still as someone who cares for an elderly person, I’m considering making a Pandora station for her so she can reap the benefits of music and have fun. It is a great idea.
If you are really into the subject matter, check out Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory otherwise visiting the website for the nonprofit would probably be sufficient.