By Christy Byrne Yates, California, USA
Move over Cannes. Step aside Sundance. A new kind of film festival is taking center stage—one that shines a spotlight on dementia awareness and caregiving.
To celebrate our 10th anniversary, AlzAuthors is proud to announce the launch of our first-ever Film Festival, running from September through December 2025. This virtual event is designed for caregivers, healthcare professionals, families, and anyone touched by dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.
Each month, we’ll feature powerful, heart-centered films that explore the challenges and triumphs of life with dementia. Even better, you’ll have the opportunity to meet the filmmakers live, ask questions, and connect with others in the caregiving community.
Here’s how it works:
Register for the film festival and you will receive the links to view each film at your own convenience. Then get on your computer, tablet, or smartphone to join the scheduled discussions with the filmmakers.
📽️ Register here to get full access to:
- All featured films
- Live Q&A sessions with filmmakers
- Event schedules and reminders
- On-demand replays if you can’t attend live
🎬 Fall 2025 Film Festival Lineup
September
“Planet A”
by Mary Crescenzo
Live Q&A: September 8, 2025 @ 2 PM EDT
“Enter this land of revelation and unintentional masquerade where anyone can be called to reside.”
“Planet A” reveals the good, bad, and ugly secrets, thoughts, and frustrations of past lives and present realities of Alzheimer’s patients, their caregivers, and family members. Follow Pauline and others who reside at a care home, when an arts practitioner working with residents unlocks the door to this world through an interwoven narrative of monologues and dialogues from distinct points of view. “Planet A” bears witness to both inhabitants and visitors who enter this terrain and shines a light in the darkness of this disease. Enter this land of revelation and unintentional masquerade, where anyone can be called to reside. The writing is brilliant; the experience is moving. 112 minutes
Cost: Free
“No Country for Old People”
by Susie Singer Carter with Rick Mountcastle
Live Q&A: September 22, 2025 @ 2 PM EDT
“No Country for Old People is more than just a series-it’s a powerful call to action for reforming the U.S. long-term care system.”
Synopsis: A filmmaker chronicles her mother’s last 6 months in a 5-star nursing home, exposing the systemic, deadly, profit-over-people business model. “No Country For Old People” is a scorching documentary poised to set the long-term care industry, policy makers, and the country ablaze. Shining a much-needed light on what is truly a national human emergency, it is a clarion call for serious change. 118 minutes
Cost: $4.99
October
“Lousy: Love in the Time of Dementia”
by Frank Silverstein
Live Q&A: October 6, 2025 @ 2 PM EDT
“When the mind forgets the words, the body remembers the tune.”
“LOUSY: Love in the Time of Dementia” is a front-row seat to ground-game dementia: its impact on my parents’ life and our family’s response. My parents cling to each other— singing, shouting and dancing— defying a world that overwhelms them. This film documents how their love helps them cope with their dementia and each other, and explores how this reality has restructured our family connections to each other and to the world. Full of painful humor and raw emotion, the film watches our family responding in real time, as we are forced to revise our relationships and rules for engagement on the fly. 15 minutes
Cost: $3.99
November
“Wine, Women, and Dementia”
by Kitty Norton
Live Q&A: November 10, 2025 @ 2 PM EDT
“Until there’s a cure, there’s community.”
The documentary feature, “Wine, Women, & Dementia,” tells the tale of dementia life through the lens of the family caregivers who strive to accept the beauty and the brutality, the hilarious and the horrific – for themselves and their dementia person. It’s a road trip around the U.S. in celebration of family caregivers and that swinging dementia lifestyle. Over glasses of wine the caregivers swap tales of love, humor, devotion, and death and most importantly how to honor LIFE on the long road to death. 1:27.09 minutes
Cost: $6 – Full-length feature (87 minutes) Uncut and uncensored with more caregiver tales(!) or free PBS exclusive 1-hour version.
December
“The Present”
by C. Nathan Brown, 21 minutes
Live Q&A: December 8, 2025 @ 2 PM EDT
“The gift that keeps on giving.”
Celebrating Christmas isn’t the same for Mya and her family since her mother died from Alzheimer’s disease. But a Christmas miracle could be in store. 21 minutes
Cost: Free
Register here
Learn about the filmmakers
Mary Crescenzo
Mary Crescenzo, pioneer in arts engagement with those living with dementia, is the author of The Planet Alzheimer’s Guide: 8 Ways the Arts Can Transform the Life of Your Loved One and Your Own, an Arts strategist/practitioner, and speaker on creative aging. Recipient of a Maude’s Award for “Innovations in Alzheimer’s Care” member of AlzAuthors, and playwright/filmmaker of Planet A, Mary is founder of “Care through the Arts”℠ which includes her workshop, Self-care Through Creative Writing for Caregivers. She is also a consultant with families, professionals, and persons living with dementia. Mary’s other hats? Jazz singer, lyricist, librettist, actor/director.
Connect with Mary
Susie Singer Carter
Susie Singer Carter is a multi-award-winning writer, director, producer, actor, and Alzheimer’s/caregiver advocate. She wrote, directed, and produced the 2018 Oscar-qualified short, My Mom and the Girl, starring Valerie Harper, using her personal experience to shed a heartfelt, uplifting light on caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s. She also wrote and produced “Bratz: The Movie” (Lionsgate) and co-produced “Soul Surfer” (Sony).
Her acclaimed podcasts include “Love Conquers Alz”—named 2020 Best Podcast by New Media Film Festival and 2024 Best Dementia Podcast by Goodpods—and the horror/comedy, “I Love Lucifer”, nominated for Best Audio Fiction by the Indie Series Awards. Her latest screenplay, “RUN”, is in pre-production with Phiphen Pictures. Most recently, Susie wrote, directed, and produced “No Country for Old People, a Nursing Home Exposé” (available on Prime Video). After her mother suffered and died from neglect and abuse in a 5-star facility, she felt morally compelled to expose a broken system through a cautionary tale meant to spark reform. The film received the 2024 Gold Anthem Award for Awareness. A passionate advocate, Susie emceed the San Fernando Valley Walk to End Alzheimer’s and proudly carried a purple flower for her late mother. She also hosts the WGAW’s 3rd & Fairfax Podcast.
More About Susie
- No Country for Old People docuseries: NoCountryForOldPeople.com
- Learn about ROAR and get involved: Via the website above
- Susie’s other works:
- My Mom and the Girl, short film
- Podcast: Love Conquers ALZ and wherever you listen to podcasts
Rick Mountcastle
Rick Mountcastle is a former U.S. Attorney with over 30 years of experience prosecuting complex criminal and civil cases. He is best known for leading the landmark 2007 prosecution of Purdue Pharma and its top executives, a case dramatized in Hulu’s Dopesick, where he was portrayed by Peter Sarsgaard.
In April 2025, Rick joined Guttman Buschner PLLC as Of Counsel, bringing his nationally recognized litigation and enforcement expertise to the firm’s whistleblower and complex litigation practice.
Over his distinguished career, Rick held senior roles in the Department of Justice and the Virginia Attorney General’s Office, earning multiple honors including the DOJ’s highest trial award. He led major healthcare fraud cases, including a $1.5 billion settlement with Abbott Laboratories for off-label marketing of Depakote in nursing homes.
A retired Army JAG officer and graduate of Marquette University and George Washington University Law School, Rick now also co-produces the upcoming docuseries No Country for Old People, which exposes abuse and neglect in long-term care facilities.
Frank Silverstein
As a network TV news-magazine producer for 30 years, Frank Silverstein produced in-depth stories for ABC-News 20/20, CNN and MSNBC on a range of topics from breaking news to business, crime, and health. He also worked as an animator on “Peewee’s Playhouse,” produced two independent documentaries: “Canal Street River to River” and “Lousy: Love in the Time of Dementia.” Most recently he produced and hosted the podcast “Authortopia.” He lives just north of New York City.
Connect with Frank
Kitty Norton
In 2016, Kitty Norton left her job as an NBC assistant editor in Los Angeles for her hometown of Portland, Oregon, to walk, stumble, crawl with her dementia mother to death’s door. When Gloria moved on to her next adventure in 2021, Kitty created and directed the documentary Wine, Women, & Dementia to celebrate and honor family caregivers.
Connect with Kitty
TikTok @winewomenanddementiadoc
Insta: @winewomenanddementia
FB @WWDdocumentary
C. Nathaniel Brown
C. Nathaniel Brown aka “Chuck” is an award-winning filmmaker, best-selling author, and storytelling coach. In addition to being CEO of the Atlanta-based media and entertainment company Expected End Entertainment, Brown is founder and Executive Director of Expose Dementia Inc., a nonprofit organization created to utilize the arts and media to educate about dementia, erase stigma, and advocate for those living with dementia and their care partners. He is also a Certified Dementia Practitioner.
The Baltimore native produced a short film called That’s My Brother, which depicted a portion of his aunt and cousin’s story. That led to the creation of Remember Me: Dementia in the African American Community, an award-winning documentary that features interviews with people living with dementia, their care partners, dementia researchers, and other dementia experts. Brown is also the author of Exposing Dementia: 8 Critical Takeaways for African Americans, his 21st book that also seeks to educate the community about dementia and its impact.
Connect with Chuck
Learn about the Moderators
About AlzAuthors
10 Years of Lighting the Way for Dementia Caregivers
AlzAuthors began in 2015 when three writers—Marianne Sciucco, Jean Lee, and Vicki Tapia—connected through their shared passion for telling stories about Alzheimer’s and dementia. What started as a small initiative to share dementia-related books has grown into a global movement, with a mission to support caregivers and families through storytelling.
Over the past decade, we’ve built a community of nearly 400 authors who write from personal and professional dementia experiences—offering books, poetry, blogs, podcasts, and now films that inform, inspire, and empower.
In 2020, we launched our popular podcast, “Untangling Alzheimer’s & Dementia,” to reach even more caregivers. Now, with our first film festival, we’re expanding our platform again—because storytelling matters, and no one should feel alone on this journey.
Explore our website for a world of resources to support the dementia journey.
2 Responses
Can I nominate a film for next year?
Matter of Mind:My Alzheimer’s
Thanks for the recommendation.