Adventure with Dementia, directed by Jonathan Baker (Australia, 2023), features in this year’s Focus on Ability International Short Film Festival. The film examines themes around dementia and cognitive processing disability, and touches on group dynamics, prejudice, stereotypes and stigma. It offers a thoughtful perspective that asks audiences to look beyond common assumptions about memory and ability. Presented alongside other works that celebrate the capabilities and achievements of people with disability, this short provides a clear, human view of its themes. Suitable for adult audiences, the film encourages discussion among festival-goers and community groups.
While we're on this journey, my greatest fear is that Jeff, my partner, gets dementia. And then, then we're in a muddle. I have frontotemporal dementia, acronym is FTD. And I've been diagnosed that through gene testing done by Frontier. And I also arranged to have a second opinion to Gosford Hospital. And a big ticket item like that, I wanted to be doubly sure. And that was 2014, and that was the same year that my sister had died from this illness. And I think I was in denial. For a long time, I thought, well, just because she has the gene doesn't mean that she'll develop the full-blown illness. But no, I was probably the one that was more in denial, and eventually I had to accept that. And little by little over the years since then, I've noticed functional changes in the way Wendy might behave or what she's able to do and not to do. And most people wouldn't even know from talking to her that there are areas in her life where there is some impairment. What affects me currently, I can't work full-time. I mean, I could still work, but there's still stigma around dementia. So if they knew about my condition, they may not want to employ me. My job before this was the driving instructor, so I definitely can't do that well. But I'm still driving through an annual driving test. Pranotemporal dementia affects the executive functions more than anything else, which is things like planning, organization, judgment. Occasionally, Wendy's filters don't work and she'll say something that, it's not so much that she doesn't really mean it, but we all have those thoughts that we think that's better left unsaid and we don't say it. But in Wendy's case, it just tends to come out sometimes. I think since my daughter's moved up to the Central Coast, I think just going over to Sharon's house and seeing Edward, and he loves me, you know, and I love him and he just, and I might just stay there 10 minutes and then I might come back. I think that's been, I think that's been the joy, yeah. To help me when there's been some, and I haven't said to Sharon I'm having a bad day, I just rock up and Edward will say, play, Mummo, play, and we play. And that's, that's fun. I think I've done, had a tremendous part in helping Edward with his words and his language development because I've got time to just talk about stuff. I was going to the gym, I go walking, I go to golf, doing creative things, and I don't know what's going to give me longevity, but I think all of that might. And so I don't want to be stereotypically, you've got dementia, you've got no hope. But I think having the information early, it's given me hope to hold on to what I've got for as long as I've got it. Yeah, so the catch cry I use is, I've seen signs on backs of cars saying, adventure before dementia, and mine's adventure with dementia.
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by Jonathan Baker - OPEN ENTRANT DOCUMENTARIES
