Proof of Life

At once uplifting and infuriating, Alive Inside is a new documentary that can’t help but tell two stories at once. On the one hand, this film is about Dan Cohen, a former social worker who some three years ago began bringing iPods loaded with music into nursing homes, where “patients” with dementia were suddenly awakened by the simple act of hearing the songs that once brought them joy.

In scene after heartbreaking scene, we behold the miracle by which a withered human being, locked deep inside the loneliness of what can only be called a living death, suddenly blossoms under the influence of music, as though the spirit itself has caught a spark. As author and neurologist Oliver Sacks explains, music creates unique synaptic pathways in our brains, accessing inroads to memory, thought and feeling unlike any other sensory experience.

Cohen, founder of the nonprofit organization Music & Memory, spends most of the film in an almost bemused state as he delivers the medicine of music to one person after the next, a witness to healing, even rebirth. There is Henry, a broken and well-nigh mute 94-year-old man who, upon hearing in headphones the songs of his youth, begins singing, his eyes popping open with recognition. “It gives me a feeling of love,” Henry says in a surge of unprecedented joy and feeling.

This is the story of uplift told by Alive Inside. It’s a story in which music, perhaps the holiest of human creations, becomes the catalyst to a kind of happy neurological shock, in which the so-called aged and infirm are revealed to be neither; instead, we see that senility and decrepitude are less biological states than states of existence brought on by alienation, loneliness and neglect. One look at Denise — a woman in a nursing home who joyously pushes away the walker she’s been using the past two years just to dance — is evidence on the order of loaves and fishes: Music is the heartbeat of the soul, and it connects us to life.

That other story, then, is not so cheery. Alive Inside also reveals the insidious ways we have come to view old age as pathology, and how we as a culture have chosen — out of convenience, expediency and fear — to institutionalize our old, funneling them out of the public eye into hospitals where they shrink away for lack of any sort of meaningful engagement with life. That music carries an easy corrective to such inhumanity is a truth to which we should all listen.

Alive Inside is playing at the Bijou Metro.

A Note From the Publisher

Dear Readers,

The last two years have been some of the hardest in Eugene Weekly’s 43 years. There were moments when keeping the paper alive felt uncertain. And yet, here we are — still publishing, still investigating, still showing up every week.

That’s because of you!

Not just because of financial support (though that matters enormously), but because of the emails, notes, conversations, encouragement and ideas you shared along the way. You reminded us why this paper exists and who it’s for.

Listening to readers has always been at the heart of Eugene Weekly. This year, that meant launching our popular weekly Activist Alert column, after many of you told us there was no single, reliable place to find information about rallies, meetings and ways to get involved. You asked. We responded.

We’ve also continued to deepen the coverage that sets Eugene Weekly apart, including our in-depth reporting on local real estate development through Bricks & Mortar — digging into what’s being built, who’s behind it and how those decisions shape our community.

And, of course, we’ve continued to bring you the stories and features many of you depend on: investigations and local government reporting, arts and culture coverage, sudoku and crossword puzzles, Savage Love, and our extensive community events calendar. We feature award-winning stories by University of Oregon student reporters getting real world journalism experience. All free. In print and online.

None of this happens by accident. It happens because readers step up and say: this matters.

As we head into a new year, please consider supporting Eugene Weekly if you’re able. Every dollar helps keep us digging, questioning, celebrating — and yes, occasionally annoying exactly the right people. We consider that a public service.

Thank you for standing with us!