A new documentary, The Memory Boom, has premiered at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.
The film is by Antosh Wojcik and Xenia Glenn from Sleepwalker Studios in Dorset and is described as:
“An experimental feature that recreates the experiences of dementia through an immersive blend of spoken word, documentary, dramatic reconstruction, and never-before-seen decayed archive footage.”
The film was commissioned by The Phoenix Cinema in Exeter who had found 16mm film reels in its basement and wanted to get them digitised. The real-life footage of unidentified people going on holiday and travelling around the world spans three decades – 1930s to 1960s – and was decayed and deteriorating when it was found.
Xenia Glenn says:
“When I watched through the archive footage, it made me think, what do these images look and feel like and what might they remind people of? When we showed the archive footage to people around Dorset and Devon it reminded them of their grandparents who lived with dementia and so that was how the initial concept of the film came about.”
You can view the trailer here: https://youtu.be/oE-uNUqS1Ww?si=QbgqjES2U72i36P0
You can find out more about the film here: https://www.sleepwalkerstudios.co.uk/the-memory-boom