From Dying to dementia

Toronto – Allan King is finishing the fine edit of his latest doc, and is set to deliver Mind and Memory in time for a fall airing on TVO. The veteran docmaker and his crew recently spent 12 weeks at Toronto’s Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, observing as patients struggled with the effects of dementia.

The project, pitched during last year’s Hot Docs fest, is similar in theme and mood to his acclaimed 2003 pic Dying at Grace, which was set at a nearby palliative care center. King says his work on Grace, and his own experiences with his ailing mother, laid the groundwork for Mind and Memory.

‘People don’t lose their minds,’ he says. ‘They do lose cognitive skills, but they don’t lose feeling. Indeed, they’re rather more expressive of their feelings. And they don’t lose their identity. They don’t lose their sense of themselves, as near as we can see.’

King is again working with editor Nick Hector, producer Kathy Avrich Johnson, DOP Peter Walker and soundmen Jason Milligan and Michael Bonini. Mind and Memory is backed by the Rogers Documentary Fund, CTF, and others, and will also air on Discovery Health Canada and Independent Film Channel. The doc will also go on the festival circuit by late this year. Sean Davidson