Week 15, February 10th to 14th.

Networking

After the previous weeks meetings I had a list of people and organisations to contact as possible participants and future collaborations in the films production.

• Contacted the Palace Cinema in Preston – they have cinema screenings for people living with dementia.
• Contacted a small company that runs training courses and provides entertainment services in care homes using vintage objects from the 1940s.
• Contacted a musician and songwriter to discuss future collaboration on the film.

Flashbacks

My research into the conceptualisation of their use in film has prompted my interest in incorporating them into my own film. I’m currently creating small sequences where these could be used as flashbacks in my own films.

One idea I’ve had is to set a poem about death, memory and loss to a dance sequence, after some research I’ve decided to use the poem Remember by Christina Rossetti. Although the poem appears to be more about death I believe it is also relevant to people living with dementia and their partners/carers who lose a bit of them each day as the memory loss increases.

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you planned:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

Christina Rossetti