NEW DELHI: Filmmaker Vishaal Nityanand is holding special screenings of his movie "Life Flows On" to mark World Alzheimer's Month and create awareness about dementia and issues related to the elderly.
Every year, September is observed as "Alzheimer's Month" and September 21 as World Alzheimer's Day.
The filmmaker marked World Alzheimer's Day with a special screening of the movie at Museo Camera Centre for the Photographic Arts in Gurugram.
"We started the journey from Mumbai at the Nehru Centre on September 10 where leading psychiatrists, civil society members and other dignitaries attended the screening.
It was in collaboration with the Alzheimer's & Related Disorders Society of India (ARDSI), an organization working on Alzheimer's.
"Then we had a screening at King George's Medical University in Lucknow on September 16, where people who are actually working on dementia or elderly geriatric care, attended," Nityanand told PTI.
He added that the team will now screen the movie at Delhi's International Habitat Centre (IHC) on October 1, which is marked as World Elderly Day.
Released in 2016, "Life Flows On" features the late Tom Alter, Michael Dieter, Allegra Dunn and Astri Ghosh.
The English-language movie revolves around the lives of three patients.
It portrays the psychological and emotional journey of Emma whose mother is progressively degenerating, with the onset of Alzheimer's disease, after the death of her husband.
"My film deals with three people living with dementia. It's a film made with European and Indian cast and crew, with actors from Norway, Britain, France, Germany and India. This is a technical film made on the issue as we have taken the help of scientists and doctors working in the field of Alzheimer's and dementia," he added.
Nityanand also held a special screening of the film at The Foreign Correspondents' Club Of South Asia in Delhi on Thursday.
The filmmaker said the movie has received tremendous response during its screenings in various cities.
"We have seen a great response to the film. Dr Pratima Murthy, the director of NIMHANS, liked it. My agenda has always been to showcase this movie to technical people as they know about the issues it deals with. We have put a lot of effort into that and then we can proudly present ourselves globally that we can also do something like this, a technically engaging story. We received great support from everyone. I've never seen this kind of interest in topics like dementia, Alzheimer's and elderly care," he added.
Going forward, Nityanand said, he wants to make the film available on an OTT platform where audiences can watch it for free.
"My agenda is to make it available where my audience don't have to pay for it. This is a film totally made for educational awareness purposes and I don't want to get stuck with the subscription model," he added.