Why Not Watch?
Don’t worry world! We always support watching documentaries legally and many of the films we recommend on Influence Film Club are available where you live too. We suggest using your preferred method for watching a film – such as searching iTunes, Amazon, Netflix, VOD platforms (video-on-demand), or renting/buying a DVD.
Find out more about starting a film club!
ALIVE INSIDE follows social worker Dan Cohen as he fights against a broken healthcare system to demonstrate music’s ability to combat both memory loss and alzheimer’s and restore a deep sense of self to those suffering from it. A joyous exploration of music’s capacity to reawaken our souls.
Director: Michael Rossato-Bennett
Share this film, and spread the healing powers of music!
Spread the music! If you know of someone suffering from dementia or healing from a traumatic experience, turn them on to the intrinsic beauty and wonder of their own personalized music- The Alive Inside Foundation has tools to help!
Become a Music & Memory volunteer by organizing an iPod donation drive or donating funds, or do a community screening and Adopt an Elder with The Alive Inside Foundation.
Consider reaching out to the elderly through an Eden Alternative program.
Ensure that music is available to all through Music Empowers that supports music education programs across the U.S, or a similar organization in your country och community.
“I had this great response and when I’d tell my friends about how great this was in terms of people really lighting up to the music in a way that was just surprising to me, they’d say, ‘Well, how nice, Dan. You’re bringing music to the old people.’ And I said, ‘No, no, you don’t get it. This is bigger than just turning on the music for them. This is huge.’”
Read the full interview here.
“Thanks to the baby boomers, who began turning 65 in 2011, the population of older Americans is expanding. By 2030, one in five Americans will be a senior citizen, nearly double the 12 percent in 2000…
Not only are there more seniors, they’re also living longer.”
Read the full article on Everyday Health.
WINTER EVENING
Cozy documentaries that will make you feel the spirit of winter.
Explore the non-profit organization Music and Memory here.
Find out here.
Our interview with Michael Rossato-Bennett.
“In the early 1950s, archaeologists unearthed several clay tablets from the 14th century B.C.E.. Found, WFMU tells us, ‘in the ancient Syrian city of Ugarit,’ these tablets ‘contained cuneiform signs in the hurrian language,’ which turned out to be the oldest known piece of music ever discovered, a 3,400 year-old cult hymn.”
Find out more and listen to an interpretation of the song here.
“Music researchers have found correlations between music making and some of the deepest workings of the human brain. Research has linked active music making with increased language discrimination and development, math ability…”
Find out more here.
Listen to our playlist with music from the film on Spotify.
Check out the results from the Pew Research Center survey here.
“When Robert Gupta was caught between a career as a doctor and as a violinist, he realized his place was in the middle… He tells a moving story of society’s marginalized and the power of music therapy, which can succeed where conventional medicine fails.”
"ALIVE INSIDE is positively tonic"
LA Times
"Gloriously inspirational"
The Hollywood Reporter
