The Genius of Marian

Just after her 60th birthday, Pam White was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and life began to change, slowly but irrevocably, for Pam and everyone around her. Her son, under the premise of helping her write a memoir of her mother –renowned artist Marian Williams Steele, who herself died of Alzheimer’s disease –films Pam over a three-year period. He documents both Pam’s degenerative decline and the family’s response to the dramatic changes in all of their lives. This personal portrait of a disease that touches so many of our own families shows the many real and familiar issues that arise, the constant adjustment to new normals. Haunted by the difficult decisions she had to make about her own mother, Pam knows what’s coming, but as she slowly loses her sense of self, the film pivots to the family committed to caring for her in a way that maintains the familiar, the fun and the love they have always shared. Her husband, fully committed to his vows, radically adjusts his life, determined to care for Pam as long as he can.

This is a film as much about love and the bonds of family as it is about Alzheimer’s. It is real, loving and deeply familiar to anyone who has directly experienced Alzheimer’s, and a telling, touching portrait for the rest of us.