Educational Media Reviews Online

Alive Inside is an emotional documentary that describes the work of social worker Dan Cohen, who brings patients with debilitating cognitive challenges back to life by having them listen to music. Cohen is the founder of a non-profit organization called Music & Memory, which trains caregivers to create personalized music playlists on portable music devices that residents can listen to. The film follows Cohen as he meets with residents, and as people listen to songs that are familiar to them from earlier in their lives, we see a remarkably positive transformation in their mood and memory.

Alive Inside is definitely an advocacy piece. I wouldn’t say the film goes on an anti-pharma, anti-institutional soap box, but it does question standard treatment practices of long-term care facilities, particularly medication. One physician interviewed in the film reveals his frustration that it is much easier for him to write expensive monthly prescriptions that tend to merely subdue residents than to purchase iPods loaded with music that may help them recover memories and feel… well, anything. Most of the patients we meet live in nursing homes or other institutional care facilities, but we do get to know two women with dementia who live at home and are primarily cared for by their husbands. They seem much more mobile and engaged than the home residents, and the film implies it’s because of their living situations more than their individual health circumstances. Other interviews in the film include those with Bobby McFerrin, a Grammy-winning musician and composer, and noted author/neurologist Oliver Sacks.

The film’s salient points rely much more on activism than on scholarship—it is guaranteed to tug on your heartstrings and convince you that changing the world for the better is so simple even though it’s not easy—yet it’s still appropriate and recommended for classes in music therapy, health sciences, nursing, and psychology.