“Five mornings together makes more than a film”
As well as our engaged research, there are some fantastic pockets of community engaged learning happening at Salford. Community Engaged Learning can bring real world and lived experience into the learning environment and live briefs can be created for students to help address issues in the community, as well as build connections and friendships.
As part of a new module ‘community filmmaking’ in the MA Filmmaking course, students Joshua Timms and Raghuvirsingh Rathod worked with our Dementia Associates to make a film together, and in the words of Maraki Pocsai (Community Engagement Officer for Salford Institute for Dementia) ‘they had the BEST time!’
Maraki continues:
“The dementia associates wanted to use humor in their film as a response to the recently released ”The long good-bye” released by Alzheimer’s Society. You can view this here if you haven’t already, https://vimeo.com/922894308/8edc14e06e“
“In the dementia community, the release of this commercial has caused a great deal of big feelings. It does nothing to showcase the great work going on in the UK in the communities for dementia, it does nothing to encourage people to feel safe and comfortable to come forward and seek a diagnosis, and it is particularly challenging to watch if you love someone with dementia or have lost someone to dementia.”
Reflecting on the sessions Maraki commented:
“This workshop was a great success because everyone had a great time, and the feedback illustrates what was really going on.”
One film student shared ”I used to think that people with dementia could not look after themselves and did not have any quality of life. This view has been completely changed and I know that dementia is only a small part of them.”
Dementia Associates all indicated in their feedback that they felt listened too throughout the filming process. One associate said ” They listened to me and didn’t interrupt my thoughts, that made me feel valued.” When asked how to describe their film making experience, these are the responses; ”Genuine involvement”, “Fabulous”, “Excellent”.
The dementia associates are going to be visiting Media City for the screening of the films and are excited to reconnect with our students.
Hopefully we will be able to publish the finished film here soon!
This work builds on other creative engagement activities the Hub has been part of recently such as their work with artist Mark Croasdale which you can read more about here: Barbara Lights up Manchester Festival of Social Science with care and kindness at Eccles Library – Research and Engagement with Impact (salford.ac.uk)
ABOUT UNIVERSITY OF SALFORD DEMENTIA HUB
The Dementia Associates group volunteers their time to provide insight into a lived experience of Dementia to the students, researchers and colleagues at Salford University.
At Salford, we are passionate about developing the next generation of health and social practitioners and undertaking research that has value and impact. Our success depends upon putting people with a lived experience of dementia at the heart of everything that we do.
By sharing their knowledge and experiences with students, academics, and practitioners, they influence students’ perception of dementia, collaborate on research, and support us to develop projects that place people with lived experience of dementia at the centre.
Contact Mali Pocsai: m.j.pocsai@salford.ac.uk or phone 0161-925-2345 for more information.
You can find out more about our MA Film Production course here: MA Film Production | University of Salford