High school student raises awareness through short film
“When watching the film, I hope others learn that Alzheimer’s disease can affect anyone. The best thing you can do is be present and spend as much time as you can with your loved one. It’s so important to raise awareness for Alzheimer’s because the number of people getting diagnosed is astounding. It’s our duty to help end Alzheimer’s. This is our chance to help make a difference.”
High school student raises awareness through short film?
My name is Bailey Lawrence! I live in Lake Bluff, Illinois and I’m a senior at Lake Forest High School. I’m a teacher assistant for the Wellness and New Media classes at my high school, a tutor, a member of the International Thespian Society, a LEAD (Linking Efforts Against Drugs) Youth Board member and even I gave a TED Talk last year on project based learning and changing the education system. I’m also really involved in theatre, but my passion and drive is filmmaking. I make an impact through the films I make.
My short film, “The Wall”, was first created for the Seven Day Challenge category in MMEA film festival. The Seven Day Challenge is where students have seven days to write, shoot, and edit a film. They must also incorporate a specific line of dialogue and a given prop must be shown in at least five shots. This year the line was, “It’s not my fault,” and the prop was a stapler. All the New Media classes at LFHS began brainstorming on Monday, March 6 once we were given the line and prop. Other kids in a separate New Media class came up with an idea to do something similar to a video I had made last fall. This video, called “Teagan’s School”, was actually for a college application.
“Teagan’s School” told the true story about me as a little girl trying to “cure” my grandma’s Alzheimer’s through teaching. I didn’t fully understand her disease at that age, so I thought that if I played “school” with her – make her write essays, stories, do math and read – I could help her stop forgetting things. At the end of the film, I grow up and my grandma passes away, but that passion for teaching and helping others still reigns true in the video and in my real life. In the video, I use a wall to hang up all of the pictures we drew together. The wall symbolized the relationship between the granddaughter and grandmother, which is story that is relatable, beautiful and important to tell.
I pitched the idea for “The Wall” to my class and to our director (Annalise Craig) and script supervisor (Clara Finley.) The three of us then began to write the script by drawing on real events from my life and the time I spent with my grandma. I wanted to dive deeper into the relationship that I had with her and show how her disease impacted my whole family. We chose the topic of Alzheimer’s disease because that’s the disease my grandma was diagnosed with. For storyline and dramatic purposes, it just fit really well because of the parallel between Ellie (the main character) and her grandma. Ellie is struggling to let go and go off to college, and the grandma is struggling to let go of her life and memories. Both of them find peace in each other. We also wanted to tell this specific story because so many people are affected by Alzheimer’s disease. It was eye opening to be on set and talk to other students whose grandfather or grandmother had Alzheimer’s disease.
The idea of the wall was mainly based on a wall that I created in my garage. Almost all the pictures and artifacts shown in the film were all real memorabilia from my grandma. It was so much fun to be able to go through my grandma’s belongings and then be able to show that in the video and help spread her story. The wall served as connection between grandmother and granddaughter. It also acted as a great visual way to show how the grandmother uses a wall to help her remember things. In the end, the thing she feared all along (letting go and not being remembered) she actually passes on to Ellie. Ellie takes a picture of her grandma’s wall and puts the picture on her own wall to help reinforce the passing of the legacy.
When watching the film, I hope others learn that Alzheimer’s disease can affect anyone. The best thing you can do is be present and spend as much time as you can with your loved one. There are also a ton of resources available for families affected by Alzheimer’s, such as the Alzheimer’s Association (an organization my family reached out to regarding my grandmother when she was still alive.) It’s so important to raise awareness for Alzheimer’s disease because the number of people getting diagnosed is astounding. It’s our duty to help end Alzheimer’s. This is our chance to help make a difference.