The elderly are a population you don’t see addressed as much in terms of mental health, and when you do it’s usually in relation to dementia. But what about their moods, emotions, and abilities? Or their capacity to express themselves in a meaningful way?
The Mind’s Image is a short documentary made as part of a larger research project on the effects of art therapy on older adults. The film was designed to show the observational results that data alone cannot fully demonstrate. Watching some of the participants change in demeanor completely, open up, become more talkative, and enthusiastically describe the landscapes they are painting in great detail, is just the kind of picture of a thousand words that lies at the nexus of the science and art of the film.
What’s interesting is many of the participants in the study, who are residents of a nursing home, are visually impaired or blind but can still see, describe, and work with color. Researcher Katrin Singler makes a moving comment in her interview about how it is encouraging to see what people near the end of their life can still feel, think, and do.
You can still watch The Mind’s Image for free until November 6th in Shorts Block No. 3 here:
https://watch.eventive.org/mentalfilmness2022/play/633f0a9d4714100092379789/631fc69808bf1900f201dcb2
You can watch our interview with researcher Katrin Singler and filmmaker Daniel Asadi Faezi in the interviews section of the site. Note: Katrin’s sound was a little fuzzy at times, so you may want to turn on the closed captions in the video.
https://mentalfilmness2022.eventive.org/eventive.org/mentalfilmness2022interviews
Mental Filmness 