The Cinematheque

Free Virtual Screening

“A radical achievement: a love letter to loss, sacrifice, and yearning. It questions how we care for elderly loved ones, and makes provocative contrasts between east and west in the economics of medicine … This is intimate observational documentary-making of a high standard.”

Charlie Phillips, The Guardian

Vancouver premiere! Researching caregiving solutions for his own ailing mother led Belgian filmmaker Kristof Bilsen to Baan Kamlangchay, a residential facility in northern Thailand providing affordable 24-hour care to Europeans with Alzheimer’s disease. Working there is Pomm, a mother of three young children whose heartfelt bonds with the elderly women in her care obscure a difficult truth: living at the facility separates her from her own family, who live many hours away. (Pomm’s video diaries of her infrequent trips to visit her kids are heartbreaking.) Intertwined with Pomm’s story is that of Maya, a 57-year-old Swiss woman with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Unable to properly care for her, Maya’s husband and three daughters have made the difficult decision to take her to Baan Kamlangchay (for ​“a holiday,” they will tell her). The dramatic convergence of these two narrative strands illuminates with great poignancy how the economics of inequality shape our lives as much as the ravages of time and disease. 

The Cinematheque is pleased to join with the UBC Department of Psychiatry and the Institute of Mental Health in presenting Frames of Mind, a monthly event utilizing film to promote professional and community education on issues pertaining to mental health and illness. 

Virtual access to a film is provided for seven days, at the conclusion of which we present an online seminar featuring conversations with special guests and an audience Q&A via Zoom.

Free Live Q&A
June 16 (Wednesday) 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm PDT Register for a free ticket to watch the film and receive an invite to the free live Zoom Q&A with Dr. Elisabeth Drance, a geriatric psychiatrist with the Dementia Caregiver Resilience Clinic at St. Paul’s Hospital; Dr. Lillian Hung, Registered Nurse and Assistant Professor, UBC School of Nursing; Peter McKnight, attorney, ethicist and journalist; and Dr. MaryLou Harrigan, health care consultant and educator.

Moderated by Dr. Harry Karlinsky, Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia.

“A laurel made not only to the mother and all the mothers, but also to all those who cared for and said last farewells to loved ones.”

Mateusz Tarwacki, Eye For Film