PIANO LESSONS

2017 Short Film

Drama

Nancy’s late for an appointment, and she’s lost the address. Yet her surroundings look oddly familiar. With the help of her beloved granddaughter Alex, Nancy must learn to navigate the strange new territory she finds herself in. Piano Lessons is a thirteen-minute short film that insightfully and empathically depicts the experience of people with age-related dementia. 

Adapted from the short story In Sight of the Lake by Alice Munro, Piano Lessons was co-written and directed by Dr. Marlene Goldman and Philip McKee, and produced by Dr. Goldman and Laura Nordin. Drawing on Dr. Goldman’s extensive research in the field, the film presents a new and important person-centred perspective, emphasizing not the cognitive decline in people with late-onset dementia and Alzheimer’s but the capacity for meaningful relationships and the knowledge that endures.

credits

Marlene Goldman - Co-Director, Co-Producer, Co-Writer, Adaption

Philip McKee - Co-Director, Co-writer, Adaption

Produced by Laura Nordin, Byron Martin, Philip McKee

Cinematography by Henry Sansom

Starring Nancy Beatty, Afrodite Drossos, Rebecca Goldman, David Storch, Beatriz Yuste