CAREGIVER MOVIE SERIES AT CAMERON Join Annette and Alison the last Wednesday of the month from 1-4PM to watch a movie about the caregiver role in various circumstances and health conditions. After the movie, we will host a brief discussion of the movie’s themes and participant impressions and experiences. We plan to host this series for 6 months and we will try to choose a variety of situations to explore through cinematic art! Here are the first four movies in the series:
May 26-Still Alice (2014): Caring for a spouse/parent with early-onset Alzheimer’s. When renowned linguistics professor Alice Howland starts to forget her beloved words, her world quickly spins with the harsh reality: early-onset Alzheimer’s. The movie transparently chronicles Alice’s battle to hide her neurological disease and find coping strategies. It also demonstrates the cognitive decline Alzheimer’s patients experience and the challenges family caregivers must tackle daily.
June 30th-The Theory of Everything (2014): Caring for an adult with a physical disability. After Cambridge University astrophysics student Stephen Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) is diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, he turns reclusive. But literature student Jane Wilde (Felicity Jones) falls in love with him and decides to marry him when she finds out Stephen only has two years to live. Jane eventually delays her own goals to become a full-time caregiver for Stephen. Felicity Jones’ role shows the emotional side of caregiving. Managing caregiver guilt, stress and exhaustion can be difficult, but it’s important for caregivers to replenish before taking care of others.
July 28th-The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007): Caring for a patient who has had a stroke. The film drama is a real-life account of Jean-Dominique Bauby and his indomitable spirit after a massive stroke left him paralyzed with locked-in syndrome. Unable to speak, the former French “Elle” magazine editor-in-chief composes his “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” book with the painstaking aid of his speech and language therapist reading a list of letters and Bauby blinking his left eyelid to spell out words. The biographical movie illustrates how Bauby’s children, his girlfriend, and his former wife all come together to undergird him through his unthinkable hardship. It shows that caregiving does take a village.
August 25th-Life Itself (2014): Caring for a person with cancer. Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert is one of history’s most commendable social commentators and an inspiring model of a life well-lived. Although his head and neck malignancy robbed Ebert of his commanding speech, the famed historian and author never lost his voice in influencing his diverse audience. Based on Ebert’s bestselling memoir “Life Itself,” the documentary portrays how to combat cancer with help from a network of family and friends.
September 29th – Away from Her (2006)-Caring for a spouse with dementia. The story centers on a couple whose marriage is tested when the wife begins to develop Alzheimer’s and moves into a nursing home, where she loses virtually all memory of her husband and begins to develop a close relationship with another nursing home resident.
October 27th – The Intouchables (2011)- Caring for someone with
quadriplegia. In Paris, the aristocratic and intellectual Philippe is a quadriplegic millionaire who is interviewing candidates for the position of his carer, with his red-haired secretary Magalie. Out of the blue, Driss cuts the line of candidates and brings a document from the Social Security and asks Phillipe to sign it to prove that he is seeking a job position so he can receive his unemployment benefit. Philippe challenges Driss, offering him a trial period of one month to gain experience helping him. Then Driss can decide whether he would like to stay with him or not. Driss accepts the challenge and moves to the mansion, changing the boring life of Phillipe and his employees.
Friends of the Cameron Senior Center 