Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory

Alive Inside illustrates the power of music and how it impacts people’s lives with the ability to awaken memory and nostalgia.

Focusing on the healthcare facilities which house the elderly especially those struggling with memory loss, the documentary reveals how the patients are treated with medications for everything from high blood pressure to blood sugar issues. A majority of these subjects live a dull existence, but everything changes when they are given a pair of headphones and an iPod.

Normally placid, unresponsive patients visibly brighten as they tap their toes to old familiar beats. Tears of nostalgia are shed as the elderly recall childhood memories and good times in the prime of their youth. Scientists explain how music triggers functions in the brain that chemical medications cannot mimic and argue for the astounding healing powers that music can have on these patients.