Project Memo-film is collaboration between the Municipal Film Archive and the John XXIII Institute in Bologna with the support of Unipol. This is a kind of film-therapy in which the protagonist and, at the same time, received the film is just the person suffering from Alzheimer’s. After finishing the film, whose realization is curate by the Film Library of Bologna, headed by director Giuseppe Bertolucci, the film is shown to patients every day for about twenty minutes to reactivate the memory and to promote the recovery of a sense of identity that unfortunately, the disease gradually fades to clear it completely.

Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative disease which affects the brain cells. This is a progressive and highly disabling disease that affects mostly elderly, although there are early form before hitting the half century. And the most common among dementia, about 70% of cases of dementia are due to Alzheimer’s disease. More precisely, the incidence of this disease is 5% in people over 65 years to reach the 40-45% in people between 80 and 90 years. To be affected in our country are about 800,000 people, mostly women.

Onset of the disease is insidious. Occur small memory deficit, neglect, confessional episodes passengers, and errors of assessment, restlessness or drowsiness. In the early days to be hit is the recent memory, while the remote is intact. For example, the patient may forget the road home, or taking improper behavior or inappropriate in the circumstances. Memory deficits gradually becoming more widespread and debilitating and occur several other neurological deficits such as apraxia and aphasia up to progressive neuronal degeneration that leads the person to be completely dependent on others, it becomes impossible for even making simple, everyday gestures like washing and dressing. The final stage of the disease is characterized by loss of control of all bodily functions and emptiness of mind. Finally, to lead to death is never the dementia but the pathologies that arise to complicate the course usually are around ten years.

There is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s disease, whose cause has been identified extra cellular accumulation of a protein called beta-amyloidal, deposited on the membrane of neurons, which form the plaques cause inflammation that destroys them. In the early stages can be used to pharmacotherapy to limit memory deficits, depressive episodes and / or anxiety, difficulties in falling asleep, and so on. Possible use of rehabilitative treatment as long as possible to maintain self-stimulated in a subject because maintain continuous and adequate attention and concentration, memory, awareness of themselves and what surrounds it. Precisely in this direction is the creation and administration of biographical films made on patients under the Project-memo. An effective way, and touching, to remind the patient and his loved ones before, and beyond, the disease, there is a person with its unique history and unique that no disease can wipe out.