“Dementia: Stories of Memory & Change” is the topic of this year’s Reel Minds Film Festival.
Three documentaries will be shown at the Little Theater, 240 East Ave., with each showing followed by a panel discussion.
“Facing the Wind,” focusing on Lewy body dementia, will be shown at 7 p.m. May 13. The other two stories focus on Alzheimer’s disease. “The Genius of Marian” will be shown at 7 p.m. May 20 and “Human Forever” at 7 p.m. May 26.
A festival pass costs $25 and can be purchased through May 13. Individual tickets for each film are $10. All can be purchased at https://filmfreeway.com/TheReelMind/tickets.“Facing the Wind,” which premiered in November 2024, follows people dealing with Lewy body dementia. Linda Szypula and Carla Preyer, whose husbands had LBD and who met in a support group, share the toll taken on them as caretakers. Casey Whisenhunt, who has had LBD for years, participates in patient support groups and works with Linda on the podcast Lewy Body Roller Coaster.
Festival co-founder Dr. Larry Guttmacher, who was recently diagnosed with LDB, will be participating in panel discussions. The May 13 discussion also will include Mary Lou Falcone, executive producer of “Facing the Wind” and author of the memoir “I Didn’t See It Coming: Love, Loss, and Lewy Body Dementia,” which includes her time as caregiver for her husband, celebrated artist Nicky Zann, who died of LDB.The Mayo Clinic website says that LBD “is the second most common type of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease. Protein deposits called Lewy bodies develop in nerve cells in the brain,” causing a decline in mental abilities that gradually worsens. Patients may suffer from visual hallucinations and changes in alertness and attention, the site says. They also “commonly have symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.”
Celebrities who had LBD include actor/comedian Robin Williams, pitcher Tom Seaver, singers Perry Como and Glen Campbell, actresses Estelle Getty and Shirley Temple, radio personality Casey Kasem, media tycoon Ted Turner and longtime Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan.“The Genius of Marian,” according to its website, “follows Pam White in the early stages of Alzheimer’s as her son Barker, the filmmaker, documents her struggle to hang on to a sense of self.” Pam recalls her own mother, renowned painter Marian Williams Steele, who died of Alzheimer’s in 2001. The film premiered in 2013 and can be seen online at https://geniusofmarian.com/. White died in 2016.
“Human Forever,” a 2023 Netherlands film, shows a worldwide journey by Jonathan de Jong and Teun Toebes, who explore how different countries and cultures care for Alzheimer’s patients. Toebes also wrote the book “Human Forever: Searching the World for a Better Quality of Life with Dementia.”For more information, go to https://reelmindfilmfest.com/whats-on.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Documentaries explore dementia at Rochester film festival
Reporting by Laura Nichols, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
