On Wednesday (February 4) C主播大秀 broadcast the latest documentary in the 'My Life' series. Following on from the episode which looked at transgender issues, 'Mr Alzheimer's and Me' tackles another challenging subject, children living with relatives who suffer from dementia. Here the executive producer and producer/director both share their experiences of making the programme.
Natasha Dack, executive producer 'Mr Alzheimer's and Me':
A few years ago I took my son, who was 9 at the time, to visit my 95 year old grandmother in her care home. She suffers from dementia and although she recognised us (mistaking me for her own daughter), there were many things about us that she couldn't remember. Dementia had changed the person she was, and my son found it difficult to understand what was happening to her and why.
I realised that there were probably thousands of families all over the country whose lives are being affected by dementia, and this inspired me to want to make a film exploring the effects of the condition on a family, but crucially from a child's point of view.
The was an obvious place to pitch this idea, a documentary series which celebrates the lives of incredible and inspirational children, and which determinedly does not shy away from dealing with often difficult subject matter. The idea was embraced by Kez Margrie, the series executive, but it was clear that a commission was dependent on finding families who would let us into their lives.
With development support from the , and a talented and sensitive producer/director, Chloe Fairweather, and dedicated researcher, Kate Rowles, on board, we spent a few months looking for families who would allow us to film with them while they were going through the difficult experience of seeing their grandparent's condition deteriorate. We struck lucky with the three children who feature in the film; Josh, Hope and Ella are brave, spirited, generous and thoughtful children who have all found ways to make a difference to the lives of their grandparents.
Chloe Fairweather, producer/director 'Mr Alzheimer's and Me':
Filming from the point of view of the children was challenging. As an adult there are so many things you can see that they don’t quite know how to articulate. Getting the balance between helping them understand and talk about their feelings and not being too leading was crucial. I didn’t want to get too preoccupied with explaining the condition, as often there was a lot that the kids themselves didn’t know about the disease.
By deciding to ground the focus of their stories on what they know, what they learn and how they cope ensured they were always in the driving seat of the narrative. Stepping back allowed for some powerful moments to unfold, including Hope learning that the tablets will not cure her Nan’s Alzheimer’s. Filming moments where everyone is surprised by what has happened can throw relationships with your contributors off course. Pre-empting this and always making time to talk with families off camera about what we had filmed was essential for keeping them onboard.
Each child was given an ipod touch to film their experiences on. Assistant producer Jack Collins set up a shared stream, which meant the kids could send their videos to us directly, which allowed us to be very responsive. Training them how to use them was an embarrassingly short process, using cameras really is second nature to kids these days, and proved an invaluable way of understanding their point of view.
It wasn’t long before we were receiving surprising and intimate footage, much of which ended up in the programme. I also asked the kids to keep video diaries, giving them this space allowed them to process their experiences without me there questioning them. Their diaries really seemed to crystallise what their biggest concerns about their grandparents were: Josh was always talking about memory loss, Ella about the difficulty of communicating, and Hope was always worrying about whether her Nan had taken her pills.
We were careful to make sure the kids and their parents understood that this personal footage may well make it into the programme, far from putting the kids off this seemed to make it more appealing. The cameras proved to be a great way of keeping them engaged in the process and making it feel like it was their film (which of course it is).
Natasha Dack is executive producer 'Mr Alzheimer's and Me'.
Chloe Fairweather is producer/director 'Mr Alzheimer's and Me'.
- is available to watch on 主播大秀 iPlayer until Friday March 6, 2015.
- Visit the to find out more about dementia.