‘Losing our minds’: documenting dementia through film

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Braithwaite, N ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6424-8919, 2025. ‘Losing our minds’: documenting dementia through film. In: International Conference on Medical Humanities, London, 07-09 March 2025.

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Abstract

The devastating effects of dementia on patients has been well documented, and research that examines the challenges faced by those who become carers for family members with dementia is emerging. While this research highlights the issues of loneliness and anxiety that familial carers can face, it cannot fully convey the everyday realities of what happens behind closed doors, and the subsequent emotional consequences. During the first Covid lockdown in 2020 I moved in with my 82-year-old mother so that she would not be alone during this extraordinary time, but as the weeks progressed, I found myself grappling with the fear that my mother’s forgetfulness and aggression towards me was not symptomatic of being ‘locked down’, but the beginnings of dementia. I spent months trying to deny the reality of what was happening rather than finding a way to document and reflect on the impacts for both of us. As an ethnographic researcher interested in observing individual experiences of everyday life through image and interview, I realised that I had an opportunity to draw from my practice to document our experiences of dementia. In 2023 I filmed my mother and I at home over the summer, creating an ethnographically driven documentary, ‘Where’s Wilma?’, that shows the harsh realities that we both face. During this paper I will present a short extract from the film, and discuss the ethical challenges of making this film, and the value of this medium for sharing the challenges of dementia on a personal level.

Item Type:	Conference contribution
Creators:	Braithwaite, N.
Date:	March 2025
Identifiers:	Number Type 2434086 Other
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham School of Art & Design
Record created by:	Jeremy Silvester
Date Added:	09 May 2025 08:50
Last Modified:	09 May 2025 08:50
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/53565