FeaturedFilmReview

Lost Memories

Reviewer: Helen Tope

Writer and Director: Gary Thomas

A short but incisive documentary on the impact of Alzheimers, Gary Thomas’ film Lost Memories lays bare the emotional effects of caregiving on the family unit.

Screenwriter Gary Thomas has used his own life as inspiration for his work in film, but when his mum, Nancy, was diagnosed with Alzheimers, Gary’s camera became not only a record of her journey, but a tool with which he could explore his own reactions to her cognitive decline.

The documentary will be shown in venues around the UK as part of a tour begining in September, and Thomas’ film-making approach will resonate and connect with viewers, as it features not only pieces to camera and interviews, but more candid moments. As a film-maker, Thomas holds nothing back in relating his own experiences.

The film is skilfully woven together with phone footage and archive material, showing Nancy both on her wedding day in 1993 (making jokes about her pre-wedding nerves); and further along in 2007, hosting a charity event. We immediately get a sense of the woman, and this becomes the most valuable of Thomas’ range of techniques. He illustrates not so much what has been ‘lost’, but the importance of recalling the person in their entirety. Thomas’ edits are, at times, devastating, and we move from an earlier Nancy to a confused, elderly woman in hospital, asking the same questions, over and over again. Thomas restages Nancy’s diagnosis, with Shalia Alvarez playing her GP, intercut with audio of Nancy’s actual appointment. When pressed, Nancy can no longer remember what year it is.

Thomas’ film also contains an interview with Liz Sampson (Professor of Dementia and Palliative Care at University College, London). This widens the perspective of Thomas’ deeply-introspective film, making political points about the necessity for comprehensive care and joined-up thinking at all levels of the NHS. However, the most powerful moments are when Thomas is sat on his own. Thomas is autistic and partially deaf, and in scenes played straight to camera, he talks about the toll caregiving takes on him. He cannot even snatch half an hour for himself. The need to process what is happening is overwhelming: his central message, that physical and emotional bodies are “eternally linked”, repeats through the film, like a refrain.

It is how the personal and the political merge in Lost Memories that creates an unforgettable portrait of familial love. The final glimpses we have of Nancy are not at hospital, but enjoying a beach holiday, pink-cheeked in the sun. Thomas’ film sears when describing the inequalities of social care, but there is also a seam of humour, of life, that stays with you far longer. Lost Memories, in its compassionate, multi-faceted approach to narrative, tells Nancy’s story ultimately through the lens of memory. This is a film as much about the before as the after. Where Nancy cannot recall for herself, Gary picks up the thread. We are offered a unique and moving insight into Alzheimers: not only what the condition removes, but what remains.

Lost memories will be screened at the Worthing Gallery (3-7 September 2024), Paignton Library (17-21 September 2024), Victoria Pavilion Uckfield (October 2024) and Library at the Lightbox Barnsley (5-10 November),

The Reviews Hub Score:

Unique and moving

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The Reviews Hub Film Team is under the editorship of Maryam Philpott.

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