BÄRBEL (ongoing)
HD | 5.1 surround | 1,33:1 | 90’ | 2024
How to deal with getting old in a dignified way? Ten years ago, I started to document my grandmother, diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and tried to understand her everyday experience. In that process, I saw how different generations kept facing up to the reality of this disease and how they tried to enable growing old as a member of a community.
Editor – Frederik Bösing
Image – Daniel Huss & Terry Kraatz
Production – Franziska Unger & Leon Harms
Director – Daniel Huss
Shooting report
Daniel Huss
Daniel Huss
When the signs of dementia became clearer in 2014, my grandmother Bärbel moved into our home and I began documenting our everyday life on camera. She became part of our community, which brought together different generations and cultures under one roof. My mother cared for Bärbel for several years until we moved her into a dementia care home in 2018. When I visited her there, she was sitting at the table with glazed eyes, drugged and no longer responding to me. A few months later, my mother decided to bring her back to our home. I experienced how Bärbel's reality was more and more affected by her Alzheimer's disease and I tried to recreate her experience on film. In this way, I accompanied my grandmother on her journey through dementia for over ten years.
