I Remember Better When I Paint, a documentary narrated by actress Olivia de Havilland about the positive impact of making art for people with Alzheimer’s, will be screened on Friday November 1, 6:30 – 8PM at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Morrill Hall, 111 Oenoke Ridge, New Canaan. Light refreshments will be served.

Hosted by the St. Mark’s Samaritan Ministry, the screening will be followed by a Q&A with the film’s producer, Berna Heugner, and St. Mark’s Music Director, Ned Tipton, who was the film’s music advisor. The film features the producer’s mother, noted Chicago artist Hilda Goldblatt Gorenstein, as she begins to awaken in the midst of her struggle with Alzheimer’s when she returns to creating art.

The film, directed and produced by Eric Ellena and Berna Huebner, features an appearance by Yasmin Aga Khan, president of Alzheimer Disease International and daughter of actress Rita Hayworth, who took up painting while battling the disease. The documentary includes brief interviews with renowned neurologists and other medical professionals who explain how creative activities engage areas of the brain that are not damaged by the disease and thus awaken a sense of personality, identity, and dignity. Physicians include Dr. Robert Neil Butler, founding director of the National Institute of Aging and Dr. Sam Gandy of Mount Sinai Health Center, New York City.

Released in 2009, the film was selected for the 2015 Flagler Film Festival, the 2010 Rhode Island International Film Festival, and the 2009 Bel Air Film Festival. In 2014 and 2015, the film was broadcast nationwide on PBS stations.

For further information, contact Liz Massey at 203-966-3015, or St. Mark’s Church at 203.966.4515.