01/22/14 01/22/14 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> from park city, utah, this is democracy now! i do this work because i survived a really violent relationship and it took me getting into this work and understanding it to really see it is so widespread. this last time he almost killed me in front of my daughter. >> what happened to you should happen to anyone ever. >> that's why i'm here.

>> "private violence." just days after utah police officer shot dead his own wife, two kids and his mother-in-law, before killing himself, a new documentary opens at sundance looking at the shocking nationwide epidemic of domestic violence, focusing on the struggles of survivors of abuse and the advocates who support them. then, "alive inside: a story of music & memory." >> when i first met him, he was very isolated and he would sit with his head like this. then when i introduced the music to him, this is his reaction ever since. [laughter] ♪ music change the lives of millions suffering from alzheimer's and dementia?

ofwill talk to the director a new documentary on music therapy in the social worker who has been putting headphones on nursing home residents and changing the lives of so many. all of that and more coming up. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the international peace conference on syria opened today with deep divisions over the fate of president bashar al- assad. meeting in switzerland, armed and the -- armed rebels assad regime are holding their first direct talks with representatives of the u.n., u.s., russia, and other world powers. secretary of state john kerry rolled out the inclusion of assad in the conference's stated goal of a transitional government. >> mutual consent, which is what has brought us here, for a transition government, means

that that government cannot be formed with someone that is objected to by one side or the other. assadmeans that bashar al- will not be part of that transition government. there is no way -- no way possible in the imagination that the man who has led a brutal response to his own people could regain the legitimacy to govern. those riffs supported him, can no longer hold an entire nation and a region hostage. >> the steering regime has scoffed at commands for out -- al-assad's departure. we are here to discuss the future of syria. syria, as a whole country, we are here to discuss the future of our own people. we don't get lessons from anybody.

this is a national syrian dialogue among the syrians themselves. >> the talks are being held without the involvement of iran, whose invitation was withdrawn after a u.s.-led objection. on tuesday, the iranian government accused secretary- general on human of bowing to u.s. pressure. the talks were also held as an report accused the assad regime for crimes against -- reminiscent of nazi concentration camps during world war ii. a team of international prosecutors released images obtained by steering defect or showing emaciated and mutilated bodies likely resulted -- resulting from torture. the defector is said to be a military investigator. former war crimes prosecutor said the images proved to killings on an industrial scale. >> we came to the conclusion that the killings were of an industrial kind. they were systematic.

they had been going on for years. the evidence we found would crime to underpin any international law. the pictures were reminiscent of the first pictures that came out after the second world war. these portraits -- poor creatures were not just start, but tortured. group hasrubble claimed responsibility for car bombing in lebanon that killed four people and wounded 20 others. the attack at a stronghold of the group hezbollah. the al qaeda linked al nusra front says it was taking revenge for missile strike kille by hezbollah last week. thailand has declared a state of emergency in the capital bangkok amid continued protests against prime minister yingluck shinawatra.

thousands of demonstrators have set up in caymans and blocked roads in a bid to force yingluck shinawatra's departure and replace her with an unelected people's counsel. she is called a snap election for early next month which is expected to win. three people have died after overnight clashes in ukraine between state forces and opposition protesters. the government has attacked protest camps in kiev and sent thousands to fight a state ban on rallies over we can. demonstrators have begun receiving text messages on their cell phones informing them of taking part in an illegal disturbance. the executive director of human rights watch called on the ukraine government to respect the right to protest. >> this individual seem to have had intentions for the season -- then turnaround and left the building and taken into custody outside the engineering building moments after the act. of a poliombers

vaccination to have been shot dead in the pakistani city of karachi. the victims were the latest to be killed in the fallout from the u.s. assassination of osama bin laden. the taliban began attacking health workers after was revealed the cia used a fake vaccination program to discover his location. the european union has frozen talks over controversial section of a transatlantic trade deal with the u.s. to allow input from member states. the you says it wants to give members time to share their input over a proposal that would grant corporations the right to sue governments over potential trade violations. states will have three months to voice their concerns. states across the northeastern united states have declared emergencies amidst heavy snowfall in freezing temperatures. thousands of flights were canceled on tuesday as over a foot of snow hit cities including philadelphia and new york city. this snowfall will be followed

by frigid conditions reminiscent of the polar vortex earlier this month. a former republican governor robert mcdonald a virginia and his wife have been indicted on charges of illegally accepting gifts from a prominent donor. mcdonnell and his family took more than 100 $40,000 from star .cientific ceo federal prosecutors say he accepted the money in exchange for promoting star scientific's products and other favors. mcdonnell's indictment was delayed until his term ended earlier this month. a student at indiana's purdue university has been killed in the nation's latest campus shooting. purdue university police chief john cox said a suspect was in custody after carrying out what appeared to be a targeted attack. >> this individual seem to have had intentions for the decedent and took the action the individual took and then turned around and left the building and was taken into custody outside

of the electrical engineering building moments after the act by a city police officer. >> the shooting is at least the fourth of u.s. school in the past week. last week, five students were shot at middle and high schools in philadelphia, albany, and new mexico. in utah, same-sex couples who were able to wed when gay marriage was briefly legal are suing the state for recognition. over 1200 lgbt couples got married after a federal judge struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage late last month. but the supreme court halted the weddings pending utah's appeal, prompting state officials to say none of the unions would be recognized. a lawsuit filed tuesday by the american civil liberties union says their marriages should be treated as the same as any other utah marriage. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. is democracy now! here

in park city, utah, the sundance film festival following the documentary track, dealing with the critical issues of the day. >> it's believed a linen police officer shot and killed his entire family. five people were found dead in the home including the officer and his two children just five years old and seven years old. >> authorities say linden police officer joshua born shot and killed his mother-in-law, wife, and two young children before turning the gun on himself. >> that's actually not a clip from a documentary -- it happened last week here in utah as the festival got underway. back home in new york city, 21- year-old woman and her two daughters ages two and one were found stabbed to death over the weekend. the victim's husband has been arrested in texas. police have reportedly investigated two incidents of domestic violence at their home this year. the list of such tragedies is long, but they're often not named for what they are -- part

of an epidemic of intimate partner violence. in fact, there's a documentary here at sundance that deals with that very issue called, "private violence." it highlights the struggles of survivors and the advocates who support them. set in north carolina and directed by cynthia hill, the film follows advocate kit gruelle who herself is a domestic violence survivor. a warning, this footage is disturbing. . i do this work because i survived a really violent relationship and it took me getting into this work and understanding it to really see it is just so widespread. this last time he'll must killed me in front of my daughter. >> what happened to you, shouldn't happen to anyone ever. >> that's why i'm here.

>> where -- what do your parents had to say about it? >> why didn't you just leave? >> did he ever threatened to kill you? >> yeah, lots of times. she is still living. >> the local prosecutor declined to prosecute because he says she should have tried to get away from him. a was convicted only of misdemeanor assault on women, what would he be looking at? >> the most he could receive his 150 days of jail. the daughter indiana were in the cap part of the truck. he started beating on her. >> martina asked them over and over, why are you hurting my mama? >> he was interviewed by law enforcement and admitted to beating herself at -- so that

he'll must broke his fingers. , martina wascate removed from deanna and that angered me. >> what was it like? >> it destroyed me. she still asks why i gave her away. >> so she remembers that. our criminal justice system requires she be beaten enough to satisfy the system. by the time he gets to that point, she has already been so worn down psychologically and physically and emotionally. the courts have told her she doesn't have value and her partner has told her she doesn't have value, perhaps family and friends have done that through their actions. why do you stay with him? that is when it is time for advocates to step up. luckily, the case will be prosecuted under the federal violence against women act.

if he doesn't go to prison, he will turnaround immediately and start to hurt women again. >> if we weren't going to do anything, maybe nothing would be done and something has to be done. >> i'm not going to let him get away with what he'd done to me, my daughters. nobody should get away with this. nobody. >> i'm always so astonished and moved at the people who want to come into this movement and do this work because it is not easy work. it can be heartbreaking and frustrating. but he can also be unbelievably uplifting -- but it can also be unbelievably uplifting. you witness victims shedding that scan and leaving the violence behind. >> the hbo documentary film "private violence" curley at the sundance film festival. i sat down tuesday with the film's director cynthia lynch and advocate kit gruelle and started by asking kit to talk about her own story. >> i survived a very violent

marriage that ended with the death of my husband 34 years ago. he was killed in an accident offshore in louisiana and it just was -- the whole experience was so astonishing. it took a long time for me to start to pull myself together but then i took my boys and moved down from the mountains to the chapel hill area. i saw an ad for a training opportunity for crisis line volunteers for domestic violence program. i went to the training. i felt like i had just been -- that i had found my emotional home, spiritual home, intellectual home. and it just fit with my personality type because i feel very strong -- i am a human rights activist, but to me, this is so essential because if you

can't be safe in your own home, where can you be safe? because of my own experience, i just recognized it wasn't just the abuser, but the victim had to deal with the oppressive system it would marginalize her and judge for an stigmatize her and make her feel like she was doing something wrong. i wanted to challenge that, too. >> can you tell us your story? i think what happens is, people say that phrase and then other women who go through it thing, , il, if it is not described can't be going through what they called a mystic violence. thatm glad you asked question. a lot of people believe domestic violence only happens to for an uneducated women. in my case, my late husband had gone to vietnam war as a marine and so he was chairing -- trained by the marines to be aggressive, to hunt able down and kill them. he told me repeatedly that if i

ever tried to leave, there wasn't a place on the planet i could go to get away from him. the reality for battered women is, they learn to live with the violence because, unfortunately, for a great number of women, when they do make that bold move , what i often refer to as a declaration of independence and say "i can't live like this anymore, the children can't of like this anymore, we've got to go," to the abusers oftentimes hunt them down and kill them. for us as advocates, we see women have to make the choice of staying in living with the leaving and running the risk of being killed. we believe there should be more options. the other thing, we are so desensitized to violence in the united states, that oftentimes women have to be beaten badly enough for a criminal justice system response. for example in north carolina, we have a charge called misdemeanor assault with a

deadly weapon. a north carolina man he can shoot or stab his wife and girlfriend and unless it involves a life-threatening injury, it will be charged as a misdemeanor. system canl justice have a green light to just carry on, essentially. >> in your case, how did you cope with your children coping with the violence? what did your husband do to you? >> the thing he liked to do most was strangled me. i think he liked knowing he had my life in his hands. his hands around my neck and squeezed and squeezed and squeezed. i'm not going to use the language you would use, but he would say "i can break your blanking neck if i wanted to." then there were the things i refer to as many show. -- minutia. he was a bodybuilder and was

trying to gain muscle weight. she wanted a lot of calories that were approaching calories. -- every night he would have a bowl of ice cream and on and he wanted peanuts because he said they were so high in protein. when i went to the grocery store on theid not want salt peanuts because he said the salt would cause him to retain fluid. when i went to the grocery store, i had to buy salted peanuts, earns them off in a calendar, pat them dry, put them on the ice cream, then if he came across salt on his peanuts on the ice cream, he would come after me because he said i did not do a good enough job washing the peanuts. important,hat is so i could not call law enforcement is a, "i'm terrorized by husband because i don't do a good enough job washing peanuts," because they would laugh. the reality is, the anger is only a tactic. it is about control. it is about seeing the woman,

wife, or girlfriend as personal property to do with as the abuser pleases. that was the case with my husband. he just treated me like i was his private property to do with as he pleased. >> and how do the kids deal with it. >> jason, our son, was only 14 months old when his dad died. he did not see anything. the older son matt, i don't think he remembers much because he was only 4 when jack died. but it has been interesting for boys,a single mom raising wanting very much for them to grow up knowing how to relate to women and the respectful and do so in nonviolent ways. there were challenges because there's a lot of external misogynistic reinforcers, but i had them at friends school for a while. they have grown up to be pretty great guys. , domesticelle

violence survivor, an advocate for other survivors for 30 years. her story is featured in the new documentary "private violence" which premiered here at sundance this week. we will return to our conversation with kit as well as the films director, cynthia hill, after the break. ♪ [music break]

>> tracy chapman singing "behind the wall." this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in park city, utah, at the sundance film festival where a new film just premiered called, "private violence" that airs on hbo later this year. i sat down tuesday with the films director cynthia hill and its main subject to domestic violence survivor, advocate kit gruelle. this is a clip from the film where kit seeks advice from a

prosecutor about the case of a woman named deanna walters. >> yes, ma'am. >> so, i want to talk with you a little bit about this case involving a woman who was kidnapped, pretty severe beating. >> when you say kidnapped, do you mean -- >> kidnapped. >> held against her will, and transported. >> she and her daughter taken out of the home, out of the state, and driven all the way to california and halfway back in the truck was stopped in oklahoma. it was in an 18 wheeler. he beat her for 4.5 days. >> what kind of injuries does she have? holy rap. >> these are the injuries. fox what did he use? flashlight, bit her.

injuries?ernal is it all tissue injuries, soft tissue injuries? >> he also strangled her. >> do we have any doctors that will say these are serious injuries? in state court, that is the tough part, when we are talking about soft tissue injuries when you don't have damage to the spleen, internal injuries, or cuts that required stitches. concussions can be serious injury. >> the local prosecutor called this a misdemeanor assault. >> ok. no. >> yes. >> i would push felony charges probably for kidnapping. a mag light is a deadly weapon if it was a mag light, assault with a deadly weapon. it is all about getting a

medical doctor to say, yes, this is serious injury. is it serious bodily injury? sure. is it attracted pain-and- suffering? the shia suffered? i think so. even if we succeed on all levels, what i'm telling you is that you may not be satisfied with the amount of time that they're going to get at the state level. >> if you was convicted only of misdemeanor assault on a female, even with doing this, what would he be looking at as far as time? >> the most he could receive is 150 days in jail. that's it. that's what i'm saying. is have a clear case transporting a woman across state lines for the purpose of terrorizing and assaulting her. that is a federal case all over. what we need to do or what you need to do in my county is really push and talk to the federal prosecutor in that area, in that area, in a district, which would be the western

district. and say, this is the case. did them interested in it. i think they will be. >> yeah. >> that is a clip from the film "private violence." us down the conversation you have with the prosecutor. can you tell us who deanna walters is, who her abuser was? >> deanna walters is a woman from the mountains of north carolina from west jefferson. she was attempting to separate from her husband and he wound up kidnapping her and their daughter and putting them in an 18 wheeler. he had his cousin drive. as they left north carolina and drove all the way out to california and halfway back to oklahoma, robbie the dn and strangled her and kicked her and urinated in her face and peter with a mag light flashlight and almost killed her. -- when the truck was stopped in oklahoma, she was

taken to a local hospital. >> explain how the police were alerted. >> it was only stopped because robbie christiana on the phone -- but dn on the phone. she put her on the phone with people he was paranoid she was having affairs with. and she wasn't doing that at all. because of her robotic approach of having these conversations, they became concerned that something was happening. they call the trucking company and rusty at unauthorized riders in the cap and the truck was pulled over and dna got out of the cab looking like she had been in the worst car accident possible. her face was smashed in. she had hemorrhage in her eyes, which is the first symptom of acute string collation assault. her body was bruised from the top of her head to the tip of her toes. her knees were for tesco is swollen where he had been her with the flashlight, i think, so she could not run.

>> her daughter watched? >> she witnessed everything. >> she was three or four at the time. martina was screaming and screaming over and over again, why are you doing this to my mom? why are you doing this to my mom? she would say -- robbie would say, your mother doesn't love us, so it is ok for me to do that. disorders had seizure and after the blows to the head, they have started back up again. she is on medication now for that. when she got back to north carolina, the local prosecutor in his first question was, why didn't you try to run? there are a thousand reasons why she didn't try to run. robbie said he would kill martina if she tried to run. she did not know where she was. she was hideously beaten and threatened with her life. she was afraid if she tried to run, he would kill her and she

didn't know what would happen to martina. this is why we have to stop asking women, why don't you just leave? >> and another problem, the question of where she was beaten would determine whether he was charged and where he would be charged, given he was crossing state lines. >> right, right. he kidnapped her in north carolina, but the local prosecutor seemed unimpressed with her injuries. in fact, when robbie came back from oklahoma, he told a local law-enforcement officers that he beat her so bad that he thought he broke his fingers, and yet they still only charged him with his demeanor us all on a female. >> the police left them on the roadside because he had her say he was saving her from a beating by someone else, and that is why she was in the truck. >> he also told her to say he had not done it. as long as robbie was a live-in earshot, she was going to say why she was instructed to say. the minute she could say, no, he

did this to me, he was on his way back to north carolina. >> cindy hill, as a filmmaker and you follow the story as it unfolds, and you're doing it as it unfolds -- >> yes. >> you did not know the final outcome. >> know, when we first met deanna, it was a few months after the incident had happened and she was so distraught thinking that nothing was going to come of this and that he was not going to be held accountable and -- i don't know, you can see this in the hopeless like, i don't know what i'm going to do and i just have to live with this. what is amazing about having this story and this trajectory and watching this process of seeking justice and the feds finally picking up the case and him actually going to prison from his 21 years and seeing

deanna transform from victim to survivor is free spectacular. it is one thing -- i've never seen in a film or documentary film actually being able to see physically her transformation. >> the horrific injuries she suffered, the police that found her said they hadn't seen injuries like that even in car accidents when they drive people out from head to toe. >> there is an image of her laying on the hospital bed, and she looks like a corpse. it looks like she is dead. she is so bruised. you cannot imagine someone actually experiencing all of this in the way she looks and still be alive. >> but unlike in many cases, he is convicted. he is sentenced. talk about that. >> we were thrilled at the sentence he got because it shows the difference between the federal prosecution on a where

he got a 21 plus year sentence, and the north carolina -- the most he would've gone was 150 days. it shows the stark contrast. >> and 150 days because that is 30 times 4, 30 times 5, five months. >> for beating her like she did. >> this is attempted murder. >> it should've been charged as attempted murder. because of the inherent patriarchy in our criminal justice system and because there are many laws that still regard women as less than or as the property of their husbands, because that is the reality of how it plays out. we do have good laws on the books in some states, but how do those laws get translated? and what does it mean for someone like dn at be beaten up badly by her husband and have the person in charge leaving them accountable for what he did look at her and say, why didn't you run? it is just completely upside down and backwards way to approach this very private

violence. when kids grow up, exposed to domestic violence, they tend to not be well in school. oftentimes they wind up running away, girls get pregnant early, boys become violent themselves, join gangs. i refer to domestic violence as a petri dish for all the other social issues that we ultimately pay for. >> having worked in domestic violence shelter, battered women's shelter myself, i know another issue is dealing with the police. that is dealt with very well in this film. you actually trained police and how not to add that the abuser. what is the accepted wisdom now on what to do and a cop is called to a domestic violence situation question mark which is probably the most violent situation overall, domestic violence cases are demonstrating most training for police officers of any situation, which most people might not know. >> one of the things that has

happened thanks to the violence against women act, there's been a lot of law enforcement training. part of what they look at now is who is the dominant aggressor. so they have been trained in looking at offense versus defense of injuries. they do a much more comprehensive and thorough job gathering evidence, talking to other people, talking to neighbors. result, a majority of law- enforcement officers around the country now see domestic violence is an actual crime. they treat it like a crime. unfortunately, in many pockets around the country, it is still not considered criminal conduct. someone who works very closely with law enforcement in north carolina and also california, i just hope in the next months, years, decades, we can really start to focus on this crime and deal more properly early on with the offender rather than blaming her

for what he has done. >> in california, you train hostage negotiators because of your experience with women as hostages in domestic violence situations? >> part of what we're trying to get negotiators to understand our battered women or what we call the nine hostages. what we mean, they wake up every morning and there abuser gives them a set of rules and regulations they have to live by. if they don't abide by those terms and conditions strictly, there are consequences. physical violence, sexual violence, coercion, intimidation. 80% of the hostagetaking incidents in this country every year our domestic-violence related. it is almost always where the woman has done what everyone has told her to do. she left, got an order protection, drawn a line in the sand. yet he says to her and to the court system and everyone else, no, you're not walking away from me. he goes over and barricades in

in the hostage negotiators are called. ,> aren't many mass shootings when you actually read the article or listen carefully to the story, have to do with a man going after a woman in some situation or her family or friends or the children? >> it just happen in utah last week right as we got here. there was a police officer who shot and killed his wife, his two children, his mother-in-law, then himself. what i have heard from the domestic violence community around here, she had separated from him and they reconciled at the holidays. it sounds like she probably had decided it wasn't going to work and was about to leave. for many battered women, that is the most dangerous time for them. >> cynthia, what are you hoping to do with this film? it is not an easy film. it probably had something to do with you making your decision about -- on the one hand, it is such an important subject, but how are you going to get support for it? get audiences for it?

back, i thinkp what we really want to happen with the film or what we want audiences to walk away with is to not ask the question of, why doesn't she just leave? it is clear after watching this you cannot ask that film and expect to get any results that are meaningful. all it does is blame the victim for the whole situation without putting any sort of responsibility on the perpetrator at all. we do play a role in this. >> you have an astounding moment in the film were a woman has killed her abuser and the comment that these women who are so violated actually feel safer in prison than they do so-called free? workedywoman i've ever

with that has killed her abuser when she goes in the prison system has said, i never felt this say. it blows my mind. this is the united states of america. for battered women who turn to the criminal justice system, bee deanna did, only to told, your injuries don't satisfy me as being serious enough to do anything with it, and then he continues to happen or she decides, i'm not going to call 911 because what is the point? then she has to take matters in her own hands and goes to prison and says, well, this is the safest i've ever felt. >> kit, you have done this work for decades now. what gives you hope? do you see improvement in how domestic violence is dealt with? >> it is a privilege to be part of this opportunity to train ins for ash lawn enforcement north carolina and california. i have to say california is very forward thinking about this crime, so that gives me hope. we still have a long ways to go

to theis not exclusive criminal justice community. i think everyone has to understand that when they look away from a battered woman, all they're doing is reinforcing the isolation. if what anyone and everyone can do when they see or hear something that gives them an indication a woman is being abused, rather than looking away or if they can learn a few basic things. help her understand this is not her fault. there is help for her as she is not alone. that we understand leaving easy process.an but there are people in the community that can help you. it is so important to helping her understand that she does in fact have people she can turn to. the other side is, we have to say to abusers, you can't do this anymore. is an advocate

for survivors of domestic violence and cindy hill director of the new hbo documentary film, "private violence" which is currently at the sundance film festival and will air on hbo later this year. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. when we come back, alive inside. a story of music and memory. stay with us.

>> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we turn now to, "alive inside: a story of music & memory." a news the name of documentary that examines how music helps those with alzheimer's. you might be familiar with one of the central characters in the film, a 90-something alzheimer's patient named henry dryer. postedumentary makers

video of henry on youtube in 2012. the clip began with video of him looking largely unresponsive to the outside world. and he is given a pair of headphones to listen to cap calloway, his favorite will stop the music energizes him, awakens him, brings back old memories. the clip of henry went viral and was seen nearly 10 million times. while the film is now done and has just premiered here in park city at the sundance film festival. here is an excerpt featuring henry. isolated and he used to always sit on the unit with his head like this. introduced the music to him him at this is his reaction ever since. [laughter] ♪ in some sense, henry has

reacquired his identity for a while through the power of music. >> what does music to to you? >> it gives me the feeling of love. beautiful. lovely. i feel a band of love, dreams. >> that is an excerpt from, "alive inside: a story of music & memory." the film follows a social worker named dan cohen who is campaigning to bring ipods to nursing homes. with more than 5 million americans living with dementia or memory loss, dan is hoping to greatly expand his program. parkohen joins us here in city, utah. he is a social worker, founding executive director of music and memory. we're also joined by michael rossato-bennett for drug drug producer of "alive inside: a story of music & memory."

we watched this film on the plane from tokyo, japan to park city, utah and was totally astounded. dan, talk about your discovery and how you ended up in a nursing home and bringing these headphones to the people there. >> in 2006, i was listing to a journalist talk about how ipods for ubiquitous everywhere. young people have them, many aults, but if i was in nursing home, what i have access to my favorite music? i did an internet search on ipods and nursing homes. i could not find one that was using ipods for their residents. i called up a local nursing home and said, i know music is a number one recreational activity, you can receive theirs in the added value of who were totally to personalize the music? it was an instant hit with folks. >> talk about what happens. talk about the transformation. >> when i first started, they did not connect me with people.

they did not know me, i was just a volunteer. transformed their moods, their motions, people who were depressed or now feeling better. people who were not very interactive with others became more social. it just a different benefits for everybody. >> set up this clip will stop it is about denise. >> denise is a bipolar schizophrenic and very sort of busy with a lot of thoughts and trying to sort of make her way through the day. .he music -- role with emotions the music helps our gives her a sense of enjoyment to distract her from that. it is a real benefit for her. >> this clip begins with one of the people who work at the nursing home and then denise. >> denise is probably an extreme

resident that we have here. vividave a very imagination. i'm very resilient. i dropped. dropp.on trying, and i i dropped and i drop. one of these days i'm going to drop and stay on the floor. ♪ >> i could not believe the music let denise push away her walker. she had been using that walker

every day for two years. ♪ you are not spanish. >> no, i'm not spanish. i will follow your lead. ♪ >> i'm having fun. >> good! we had seen what music can do for memory, but with denise, we saw what music can do for the spirit. >> an excerpt from, "alive inside: a story of music & memory." for our radio audience, that clip began with denise sitting

in her wheelchair, then she's given headphones playing salsa use it. the clip ends with her standing up and dancing. we are joined by dan cohen, a social worker who thought of bringing in these headphones to the nursing home and michael rossato-bennett who filmed all of this. michael, talk about how you came into this. dan had a beautiful project, and i had done work with the shelley and don rubin foundation and i was asked to help out. when i saw what was happening, i was like, the only way to tell the story is through film because this is so amazing. when i was younger, i had a lot of kind of bad experiences in hospitals. i went into this nursing homes with dan and sell these elders just sort of -- and sell these elders sitting along the walls with their heads down and it was a very scary experience for me

to be there. i actually could not imagine -- can you imagine living in that your life inending that environment? it was sort of frightening for me to enter this place that was their home. one of the first people, if not the first person that i saw, was henry. we set up our cameras. this guy came in and he was just and legally gone to the world. -- and he was completely gone to the world. when he got his headphones, when he came alive -- we talk about it in the film, but there is sort of a reaction that happens. you see somebody come to life, a really completely does something to you. --t first day i cried literally, five times. i don't ever cry, ever. you see these people living just really such sad lives.

but certainly, dan, this goes beyond people with dementia or alzheimer's? >> yes, we all love music. when we get older, we will still love music. just because someone is old and in a nursing home and can no longer operate equipment, very often lose access to their favorite music. we want to restore that access for everyone. >> talk about how it caps on do something. they're not only just rocking out to the be, it is bringing her out memories. -- it is bringing about memories and talking when they have not talked in months. they stop speaking. when they hear music that is youth,ar from their they connect to the emotional system from the cognitive system. music, the way we connect with

music is very much emotional and visceral. >> let's go to another clip from, "alive inside: a story of music & memory." therapistrecreation devon russell. >> she did not respond laying in bed. as much as i tried for two years, no matter what i tried -- assange would not work, nothing worked. when she was introduced to the ipod and the family tell me the things she liked, it was amazing once we put the ipod on her. feet.arted shaking her she started moving her hips.

her son was amazed. ok, can we stop? now i'm getting -- i'm seeing her all over again. russell,wasyvonne describing her patient. dan, for the people listening on the radio who can't see and just overall, talk about what happened to this woman who was laying in the bed. is lying in a fetal position with eyes closed, really end of life. she is bed ridden. peerssic comes on and she comatose joseph first, but then she starts shaking to the music. her head is moving, her body is moving. even though her eyes are closed and she is lying down in this position, it is moving to watch. >> years ago my grandmother wasn'tntil 108 and she seen now, did not suffer from

dementia, but in those last years, she was hard of hearing. i was racing offer radio interview and said, i have to go. she said, but darling1 and i realize,ed i'm holding my tape recorder and the headphones. i put them on her head and i said, i have to go, grandma. then she says, what's keeping you? that just changed everything. i spoke into the mic and put the headphones on her. when we had lunch with my brothers and my mom, i would put the headphones on her and say, let's pass the mic when talking. then she's part of the conversation. people are polite and don't keep saying, what? michael, let me ask about the experience of not just music, but hearing people's voices in full throttle. >> that is one of the things that touched me so much about this whole experience. for people with dementia, their struggling with the outside world.

the stimulus is so overwhelming. they don't have the ability to discern what is happening. when you put headphones on a person like that, there's a double gift. not only is the music incredible, but you're limiting the world to something that is totally pleasurable and simple and the beat keeps going. there's a lot of faith involved. the world becomes a much more beautiful place. the entire craziness of maybe the institution they're living in disappears. one thing that was so profound for me was the depth of emotion that they were capable of. you see these people and you can't help but say, they're not as alive as the rest of us. but then when you see the world kind of going into a place where they are comfortable and they're deeply profound -- that is what

blew me away. these people that sort of it seemed like everyone thinks they are gone, or literally capable of profound experience at the level we are. that was a shocker for me. every heart of this film, i mean, you deal overall, dan, with the issue of what you call elderhood. what are we doing with the older people in our society who could contribute so much? were not talking about rat infested, cockroach calling nursing homes. the very opposite. we're talking about clean, antiseptic, four white walls, people who already their lives sort of stripped away from them, their identities they have known -- that is what they are left with in the last years of their life, yet are so much that could be. so much that could be.

>> the nursing homes, because our society reduces every year the amount of money going to nursing home care, the nursing homes filled with great staff commit dedicated people, have to do the same level of service every year to this group of people and so as a result, they have to have activities for the group. when we are in a nursing home, there are individual activities and how would like to do things, but it is very hard for them to carry that out. as a society, we need to support these long-term care facilities. >> what are the numbers? living in 16,000 nursing homes, plus another one million people living in assisted living facilities. 40% of those folks have some form of dementia as well. can you have 7 million people being cared for in homes, 5 million of all u.s. -- >> you say in the film, doctors can write prescriptions for

$1000 for antidepressants but it is hard to get $40 for a cd player. >> yes. it is not reimbursable or an acceptable expense. >> and the drug companies don't make money. >> our system is set up that the drug, regardless of the side giving thesee folks antipsychotic medications to help calm them down but they're really not meant for this. dramaticeffects are so that the government is saying, please, doctors, slow down on the use of these. doctors and nursing homes and some at home whose mom might've been behaving out of control and the daughter says, dr., give my mom something, please. it is our approach to we need medications. >> you talk about how an older cultures, elders are brought into society, being there with children who are left alone also, but people are so isolated . we have no place now in our

society. >> that is very true. now we have these institutions where we would love to get the community in more. i like to say to my local school, i can hardly find a parking space but never a problem at the nursing home. as people with dementia -- and i started people said, you'll isolate people more by putting on headphones. it is the opposite. people became more social. "oh, this reminds me of when i met my husband. or, you're my age, remember this ?" young people bring in the ipods and hang out the older generation together. thank you for being with us. the film is amazing. dan cohen and michael rossato- bennett from, "alive inside: a story of music & memory." that does it for the show. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]