Alive Inside investigates the questions surrounding Alzheimer’s and dementia and the power music has to awaken deeply locked memories.

A beautiful, thoughtful exploration, it is produced and directed by Michael Rossato-Bennett, Fanchon’s son. The film follows Dan Cohen, a social worker, who decides on a whim to bring iPods to a nursing home. To his and the staff’s surprise, many residents suffering from memory loss seem to “awaken” when they are able to listen to music from their past.

Alive Inside tackles important questions such as: How do I want to age? What can we do for our loved ones? Can we do better?

Alive Inside wins the Sundance Audience Award!!!

Alive Inside was honored to receive the 2014 Audience Award for U.S. Documentary at the Sundance Festival.

Learn more about this vital, moving film here.

This is a subject close Fanchon’s heart. Here is a short excerpt of poetry that she wrote on the subject:

no need to name anything

in motion,
when exactly
does breath come in……………………….……
ride the wave of mystery
exhales surprise,

can you, can i, old and more alone than ever before, be taken over by the surprise of each new breath moving through, a wave…..

can you who was in charge wait for the next inevitable inhale

are you so old that you, like me, sometimes, only feel the smaller and smaller world with which we crumble and hide

it is old, the way our spines curve,
the way our shoulders squeeze into stiffness
the way we wait for a friend, a visitor, willing to look into our eyes,