Directed by longtime PBS producer-filmmaker Elizabeth Arledge, and based on David Shenk's book The Forgetting -- Alzheimer's: Portrait of an Epidemic, the program focuses on three families hit hard by the disease. Harry Fugets is a man in his seventies, taking care of his wife, Gladys, who is in the early stages of Alzheimer's, though she's in a kind of cheery denial about it. Though Harry is obviously devastated, their story is, at times, grimly humorous. She's taken up smoking, but can't remember this, so when Harry mentions her smoking during an interview, she vehemently (and honestly as far as she's concerned) denies that she smokes.

By contrast, the family of Isabel McKenna has reached a certain peace after 13 years of coping with the disease. Now in the final stages of Alzheimer's, Isabel is bedridden and reaching the point where she can no longer swallow or breathe on her own, and her daughters and beleaguered husband face hard decisions about keeping this once vibrant matriarch on life support.

Most disturbing though, is the toll the disease is taking on the Noonans, a middle class family plagued with a rare early-onset form of Alzheimer's. After their mother was diagnosed with the disease at 39, her many children, now in their 40s and 50s, are faced with a 50% probability they, too, will genetically inherit the disease (and pass it on to their children). Fran Noonan, who bravely discussed life with Alzheimer's on national news shows in the mid-1990s, now is barely recognizable in her mid-50s, robbed of her dignity and forced to spend her last days in a nursing home.

The Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimer's inter-cuts these heart-wrenching stories with background on dementia, going as far back as 2800 B.C., and through the research of Dr. Alois Alzheimer himself. Mostly though, the focus is on the race to visualize amaloid plaques, the starchy material that grows like weeds in the brain, attacking and severing the lines of communication and memory. The program gets into considerable scientific detail, but always maintains accessibility. For instance, the show points out that, for Alzheimer's patients, the problem isn't that their brains receive information that is then forgotten minutes later. Rather, these amaloid plaques sever receptors in the brain, which prevent the data from ever being received in the first place. Much of the technical side of the show is supported by good CGI-type animation.

Video & Audio

The Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimer's was shot in 24fps High Definition Video, and presented on DVD in 1.77:1 / 16:9 anamorphic format. The show looks excellent with, as director Arledge points out, the look of 35mm film coupled with the production advantages of High-Def. (Arledge and her cameramen also have a great eye for the format.) The stereo sound is also quite good without being showy.

Extras

In line with the feature, the DVD's supplements are mainly of an educational / public service nature. First is a 30-Minute Q & A hosted by David Hyde Pierce. Presented in 4:3 format, this forum includes the families featured on the show, Alzheimer's experts, and author Shenk. Shenk also appears in Interview with the author of The Forgetting -- Alzheimer's: Portrait of an Epidemic, an 11-minute 16:9 extra. Finally, a 4:3 six-minute Interview with Filmmaker Elizabeth Arledge finds the director discussing her approach to filming highly personal, intimate moments with the victims and their families. Web links guide the viewer to useful PBS and Alzheimer's sites.

Parting Thoughts

Though unquestionably unnerving, The Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimer's is ultimately hopeful, and a program everyone should see. Though I could have done without the corporate sponsorship plugs common to PBS programming (and now their DVDs), the show itself is invaluable, a tool that will be a great resource, unfortunately, for many years to come.

Stuart Galbraith IV is a Los Angeles and Kyoto-based film historian whose work includes The Emperor and the Wolf -- The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune. He is presently writing a new book on Japanese cinema for Taschen.