Bread And Roses

Bread & Roses serves people of all ages and backgrounds who are isolated in institutions. Some of them suffer from lapses in memory.  We have seen seniors with Alzheimer’s disease, for instance, who may not recognize their grandchildren, but are still able to recall all the lyrics of a song.

Those who know the power that music has to invoke memory will appreciate The Music Never Stopped, a 2011 Sundance Film Festival pick that examines the relationship between memory, music, and healing. In the film, Gabriel (Lou Taylor Pucci), is reunited with his parents, Henry (J.K. Simmons) and Helen Sawyer (Cara Seymour), when he turns up at a hospital in New York in 1986 with a large, yet benign brain tumor that has severely damaged his memory.  The past, present and future are virtually indistinguishable for him and he is incapable of interacting with those around him, including his parents, from whom he’s been estranged for 20 years.

When medicine and traditional therapy fail to help Gabriel regain his memory, Henry contacts a music therapist, Dianne Daley (Julia Ormond), who discovers that when Gabriel listens to the music that he loved as an adolescent, especially the Grateful Dead, he is able to reconnect with the world. We all have a soundtrack to our lives, and somehow that musical memory seems to survive even the most traumatic of brain injuries.

This movie is based on “The Last Hippie,” a case study in the anthology, An Anthropologist on Mars by renowned neurologist and music therapy advocate, Oliver Sacks, who is also the author of Awakenings, Musicophilia and The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat. Although the movie has an indie feel, Jim Kohlberg’s directorial debut deftly captures the astonishing power of music to bring hope and healing to a man crippled and isolated by a neurological disease. When Gabriel listens to music that is familiar to him, Henry is able to communicate and bond with his son.

Perhaps, the best part of this film is the soundtrack which perfectly encapsulates the story and includes three previously unreleased tracks by the Grateful Dead, as well as music by Bob Dylan, Crosby, Stills & Nash, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Buffalo Springfield. Each of these musicians felt strongly enough about this movie to donate the rights to their music, without which Kohlberg would not have been able to make the film.

So, whether you are a Dead-head, an all-around music lover or are simply interested in psychology and the science behind music therapy, this movie will touch you, and encourage you to think about the connection between music, memory and experience. Think about it, if all you had was music to remind you of who you are, what songs would be included on the soundtrack to your life?