Chatter Box Film

Conscious is a new documentary about the human condition and dementia.

Receiving its World Premiere, at the renowned CPH:DOX on 14th March, Suki Chan’s documentary entitled Conscious is about our relationship with our human consciousness and the slow degradation of the human mind through the affliction and disease of dementia.

Told with voiceovers and more candid conversations between sufferers and their loved ones. Those who are faced with the debilitating disease talk candidly about the slowing down of their bodies, the bodies that they have lived with for so long starts to let them down. They talk openly, in such existential terms as aware they will not be existing in years to come.

At times a hard watch due to the heartfelt nature of the content, you see the interviewees come to terms with it by way of talking to strangers, communicating with loved ones or writing down thoughts so they can remember what they did yesterday.

One emotional sequence, is a man, Michael, talking to himself in the mirror. Not recognising himself in the mirror, and becoming angry with that fact but not realising how agitated he is becoming to another. What you think of as a one-off is actually a dramatisation of a couple whose relationship is deterioating under the strain of his dementia, using transcripted dialogue for the couple to act out. It is startling but important that we see this honest depiction of such everyday trauma for one half of the relationship.

While a downbeat subject matter, there is nevertheless an optimism ringing out as we discover new scientific discoveries to overcome one of life’s great conundrums. This is helped by Chan’s sure-handede nuance in the director’s chair and the emotive score by Dominik Scherrer, a Novello Award winning composer.

Conscious is financed by Screen Scotland, BFI/Doc Society and Sundance. It received its World Premiere on 14th March at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen, Denmark.