Learning to Accept: A Documentary about Parkinson’s Disease and One Family’s Journey

2023-06-01 11:59:39

Two years ago, the mother of fourth-year Communications IEMES student Quinty Prince was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. The impact of this diagnosis was great on the family, but Quinty did not give up. She even made a documentary about it called “Learning to Accept,” which premieres June 16. “Parkinson has brought my mother and me closer together.”

Quinty’s mother has had symptoms associated with Parkinson’s disease for fifteen years. “Many people think it’s a disease that occurs in older people and mainly consists of uncontrolled trembling, but since knowing that my mother also has Parkinson’s, I realize that there is a laundry list of symptoms.”

Trembling, fatigue, dizziness, fainting, sleep deprivation and barely being able to sleep. It’s all kinds of signs of Parkinson’s. “My mother also suffers from this. In addition, she is very forgetful, her body feels stiff and she has difficulty walking, standing up and other movements. What’s the most annoying thing about that? You can’t do anything about it at all.”

Tuck away
The fact that Parkinson’s is so much more than a disease that occurs in the elderly was one of the reasons for Quinty to make a documentary. But the film is also a piece of processing for her, her mother and the rest of the family. “I don’t talk so easily about things that bother me. I also tried to stop this, but it didn’t work. I only saw my mom getting worse and not getting better, so that’s when I realized I really had to do something about this. That is how the idea of ​​the documentary was born.”

Soon the fourth-year student asked her mother if she wanted to cooperate. “That would mean that there would be a camera on her nose all the time. But after a good week of thinking, she decided it would be a good idea, because this project is also a piece of processing for her. For example, we can look back in a year to see how her development has gone and we will always keep a memory.”

Make an impact
As a communication student, Quinty has always had a predilection for visual communication, such as animating and illustrating. But telling a story on screen was new to her. “Nevertheless, I wanted to make an impact and share information without literally naming the message. I tried to do that with this documentary.” [Tekst gaat verder onder de video, een teaser van de documentaire]

download

Quinty borrowed a camera from school and started filming immediately upon returning home. Her mother was allowed to tell her story about her journey with Parkinson’s. “That was very emotional and confrontational. We had to redo the conversation a few times because we both kept bursting into tears.”

Intense experience
The interview was the starting position for the rest, such as visits to her mother’s work and hospital appointments. “That’s how we created the story. A very beautiful, but certainly intense experience.”

Ultimately, Quinty wants to raise awareness about Parkinson’s with her documentary. “This is the fastest growing brain disease at the moment and it cannot be cured. Far too few people know about it, and I want to counter that in this way. Maybe my story will even help others recognize the disease more quickly in their loved ones.”

Never fully accept
Although Quinty and her mother have learned to deal with Parkinson’s better and better thanks to the documentary, the student also knows that she will never fully accept the disease. “But we have to deal with it. This story has brought my mother and me closer than ever, and that is perhaps the most important thing.” [Noëlle van den Berg]

Boilerplate

The documentary ‘Learning to accept’ can be seen on Friday 16 June in Theater De Stoelendans in Oirschot. The profit of the tickets sold is donated by Quinty to the Parkinson NL foundation. Quinty is also in talks with this foundation about whether the documentary can be shown in several movie houses. Tickets are for sale via the website.

You can respond below. Comments once published will not be deleted

‘,
‘window.fbAsyncInit = function() {‘,
‘FB.init({‘,
‘appId:’216372371876365′,’,
‘xfbml:true,’,
‘version: ‘v2.6”,
‘});’
];
ppLoadLater.placeholderFBSDK.push(‘};’);

var ppFacebookSDK = [
‘(function(d, s, id) {‘,
‘var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];’,
‘if (d.getElementById(id)) return;’,
‘js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;’,
‘js.src = “https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js”;’,
‘fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);’,
‘}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));’
];
ppLoadLater.placeholderFBSDK = ppLoadLater.placeholderFBSDK.concat(ppFacebookSDK);
ppLoadLater.placeholderFBSDK.push(‘‘);
ppLoadLater.placeholderFBSDK = ppLoadLater.placeholderFBSDK.join(“n”);

#Quinty #documentary #mother #Parkinsons