On the way to interview a novelist, Lane and Christina are involved in a car crash which leaves literary critic Christina brain-damaged. Lane undertakes the assignment and becomes attracted to the novelist’s 15 year old daughter, leading to stormy emotions.

On Christmas Eve, Lefty is a homeless and unemployed alcoholic loser that will lose the right to see his son. In despair, he trades a gun and is ready to heist a convenience store and commit suicide. Eva is a lonely old lady estranged from her family that is ready to commit suicide. Kirk is the owner of a convenience store and gas station that feels stranded in his work. Mary is a mother that is raising her young son alone after the accident of her husband that has brain damage. Mitch is a youngster that belongs to a Christian group of youths that does not understand the reason why they should visit lonely old people of his community in the Christmas Eve. The lonely and depressed persons have their lives affected for good by minor acts of kindness and sympathy and Mitch realizes how important his assignment has made the difference.

Donnie Rose went to prison for beating a young man so brutally it left him handicapped for life. Nine years later, Donnie is out. He’s a different man with only one place to go: back home to the same violent and racist neighborhood that created him. At the other end of town, the black community still wants revenge. The instrument of justice will be Ossie Paris, a devastatingly talented boxer who challenges Donnie to a match; a match Donnie’s family and peers won’t let him refuse. George Carvery has waited nine years to avenge his son’s fate at the hands of Donnie. When finally they meet face to face, however, both realize they share a similar desire to overcome the past. As the barely contained racism boils to the surface, George and Donnie form a seemingly unlikely alliance. Their partnership makes them outcasts from both tribes, who will only be satisfied by blood in the ring. The two men get to know each other in the eye of a storm, knowing full well that their futures will be decided with the bell of the first round.

Leo and Paige are a couple who just got married. After an accident, Paige is left unconscious, and when she awakes she doesn’t remember Leo. Her parents, whom she hasn’t since she and Leo got together, come and visit her. She can’t believe that she hasn’t seen them for such a long time. Leo wants to bring her home with him but her parents want her to go with them. She goes with Leo but when she doesn’t recognize anything, she goes to her parents. And she wonders why did she cut off contact with her family. She also runs into her ex and wonders why they broke up. Leo tries to win her back by courting her again.

Matt King’s family has lived in Hawaii for generations. His extended family – namely he and his many cousins – own 25,000 acres of undeveloped land on Kauai held in trust, which ends in seven years. The easiest thing for the family to do is sell the land before the seven years is up, which is all the talk in the state, as, to whom they sell the property could very well change the face of Kauai. Despite the vast wealth that comes with the land, Matt has decided to live solely on what he earns as a Honolulu lawyer. However, Matt has not had a perfect life living in Hawaiian paradise as many believe. He and his wife Elizabeth were having problems in their marriage. She recently got into a boating accident which has placed her in a coma. Their seventeen year old daughter Alex is in boarding school on the big island since they couldn’t handle her rebellion, which was made all the worse by an argument of an unknown nature between mother and daughter during Alex’s last visit home. And their ten year old daughter Scottie is starting to act out, which Matt doesn’t know if he can handle, potentially raising her on his own. Matt decides to bring Alex home upon news that Elizabeth is brain dead, and that she will be pulled off life support. But revelations about Elizabeth and Alex’s argument, which is tied indirectly to the issue of the land sale, leads to some decisions on Matt’s part about what is best for him in both mourning Elizabeth’s death and what is the best thing to do about the land, the two decisions which may be incompatible.

Dominick and Eugene are twins, but Dominick is a little bit slow due do an accident in his youth. They live together, with Dominick working as garbage man to put Eugene through medical school. Their relationship becomes strained when Eugene must decide between his devotion to his brother, or his need to go away to complete his training. Things are also not helped by Dominick’s co-worker, or Eugene’s budding romance.

Having discovered that she is pregnant, Natalie Ravenna (Shirley Knight), a Long Island housewife panics and leaves home to see if she might just possibly have made something different out of herself; if she can manage to unshackle her grocery list worth of responsibilities that add up to a life with a husband she loves. In a motel room where Natalie stops to rest during the day, she sits motionless on the bed, and experiences the exuberance of complete freedom and the queasy feelings of new beginnings. Natalie continues on with her journey and picks up a young hitch-hiker -Killer (James Caan), an attractive brain-damaged football player. It is through Killer that poses a more disturbing question to Natalie than that of domestic responsibility. How deeply are we wedded to chance meetings and are we responsible for the crimes that we witness?

East Germany, the year 1989: A young man protests against the regime. His mother watches the police arresting him and suffers a heart attack and falls into a coma. Some months later, the GDR does not exist anymore and the mother awakes. Since she has to avoid every excitement, the son tries to set up the GDR again for her in their flat. But the world has changed a lot.

When Adam is 8, he gets hit by a car, suffers brain trauma, one arm and leg will always be weaker than the other and he has a pronounced limp. During this time his parents get divorced and he grows up with his mother, Karen. Now Adam is 17, a senior and attending a new school. Jackie, a pretty girl, is nice to him and some of the popular kids, Ethan, follow her lead and treat Adam pretty well. Their old friend James, however, stirs up trouble. James continually picks on Adam, and the two keep getting into trouble at school for fighting. One day a speech competition is announced. Adam wins it, does his speech but gets into another fight with James and the two get expelled. Adam plummets in depression but writes a book and gets it published. Years later his book is this story.

This film provides a very personal look at the lives of three soldiers from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula before during and after their deployment to Afghanistan. That one of the soldiers, Dom, is a talented young artist is particularly fascinating and provocative. This film shows the human side of war that often gets lost among the flags and parades. This is a picture about the young men who go to war not the politics that sent them halfway around the war. It is a coming-of-age story about what war does to a man’s body and soul. They return for war forever changed by what they have experienced.

The filmmaker, Heather Courtney, does a wonderful job of allowing the soldiers to tell their stories, present their view of the war they are fighting and tell the audience about their little corner of America that most of us have never visited. Since they are assigned to explosive ordinance disposal team which is searching out Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), this is in many ways a true to life version of the Hurt Locker. The film is compelling and powerful.

Walter Sherman is an Iraq war veteran who has suffered brain damage in an IED explosion. The brain damage trigges in Walter the ability to “find” things, he sees connections between seemingly unrelated events, objects or people that other investigators would miss. Walter is assisted by his “legal advisor” and bar owner Leo Knox, US Deputy Marshal Isabel Zambada, and teen parolee and thief Willa Monday, who is serving her probation with the team. The brain damage that gives Walter his “finder” talent has also left him with a case of paranoia and other mental idiosyncrasies. Walter refuses treatment because he does not want to lose his talent. The last time Walter failed to find someone, it was the IED explosive expert that was responsible for blowing up Walter’s Humvee and killing 5 members of his unit.

Henry Turner is a despicable and ruthless trial lawyer whose life is turned upside down when he is shot in the head during a robbery. He survives the injury with significant brain damage and must re-learn how to speak, walk, and function normally. He has also lost most of the memory of his personal life, and must adjust to life with the family that he does not remember. To the surprise of his wife and daughter, Henry becomes a loving and affectionate man.

Reciprocal consolation. The background of two middle-aged people (Michel and Lydia) is gradually unfolded. Michel’s wife is incurably ill. They had agreed that she would take her life on this day. All telephone cables were cut and Michel should leave France for months. But he goes forth and back between the airport and his home street. Once when opening the door of a taxi he destroys Lydia’s shopping carrier. They sit down in a café while he writes her a check. During this night they will part and meet again several times. Half a year ago Lydia’s husband had a car accident. Their daughter died and the husband got brain injury. His talk is incomprehensible. Tonight is his birthday. Lydia eventually takes Michel to the great feast that is almost over. In the morning they go to Michel’s apartment, where police and relatives are already present. Michel and Lydia had agreed to meet at Lydia’s apartment on the next morning. When he comes there, a foreign woman invites him in. Lydia soon calls on telephone. Lydia cannot put up with him in his present state. During the entire night she saw him sitting and praying at his wife’s bed. But she offers him to live in her apartment for a month, and she will go away. When she returns they may see what will happen.

A nurse, trying to salvage her life after her husband and job are gone, winds up working in a halfway house full of mildly brain-damaged patients and receives help from those she helps.

In this documentary, Kimberley Reed returns home after a 20 year absence to attend her high school reunion. She’s nervous at the prospect seeing her old high school friends as she was a man then and underwent sex reassignment surgery since. Her family is generally supportive and she’s particularly hoping to reconcile with her adoptive brother Marc who has suffered from a personality disorder since a serious car accident some years before and with whom she has had no contact for 10 years. Marc has always wondered about his biological parents and in what proves to be a process of discovery for both of the, Marc learns that his grandparents were Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth. None of it leads to a reconciliation however.

Tale of a father who struggles to bond with his estranged son Gabriel, after Gabriel suffers from a brain tumor that prevents him from forming new memories. With Gabriel unable to shed the beliefs and interests that caused their physical and emotional distance, Henry must learn to embrace his son’s choices and try to connect with him through music.

Seizure: The Story of Kathy Morris

A young music student has a seizure forcing her to undergo brain surgery. She comes out of the surgery unable to count or read and has difficulty adapting to life.

Gantenbein

The documentary Gantenbein is about a guy called Gijs, who has a had a brain operation which went terribly wrong… so wrong that he had to learn his own life through photographs. His wife showed him pictures: ‘it is me over there, so that must have been parts of my life.’ Gijs cannot read a book anymore and moves through life like Gantenbein. ( he was a German teacher once and loved the book Gantenbein of Max Frisch, in this book a guy pretends tt be blind- but he isn’t really). Gijs has two kids and a wife – he didn’t recognize them after the operation. The weird thing was: he was operated on his left side of his brain and after the operation he was paralized on the left side of his body – then his wife realised that something MUST have went terribly wrong during this relatively simply brain-operation. She is sueing the Dutch hospital for around ten years now.. but nobody will admit something went wrong. All the neurologists (only a few in Holland) support each other. It is a well made and interesting documentary that was on dutch television.

Braindamadj’d… Take II

Ten years ago, Montrealer Paul Nadler at 30 was a creative maverick – snowboarding, rock-climbing and scuba diving, taking part in all-night play-writing sessions, attracting women, and winning awards as a hip television director. Then he was found alone on a road in Egypt, without clothes and I.D., comatose in the hot sun after a car accident. He had been left for dead. The doctors said he would never recover from TBI – Traumatic Brain Injury. Braindamadj’d…Take II traces the excruciating process of recovery, both physical and psychological. It features Nadler’s often sardonic comments on his progress, and the observations of key people involved in his recovery. Among them are his doggedly supportive mother, Vera Nadler-Hébert, his ironic but firm-willed father Arie; his sister, cousins, friends, colleagues and medical professionals – neurologists and therapists, one of whom asserts that working with Paul has changed the way she treats patients…

Help! My Brain Is Not What It Used to Be

Feisty elderly lady laments the effects of her declining memory.

Pieces of the Puzzle: An Introduction to Brain Injury

This is a great brain injury basics video, a great resource for families of brain injury survivors and brain injury case managers alike. (copyright: The University of Iowa)

MTV True Life – I Have a Traumatic Brain Injury

Meet Neil, Adam and Donnie, three young men who are battling with life-altering injuries from motor vehicle accidents. (You may not be able to see this video from Canada, but look for it on youtube)

Backstroke

Rome and Julie end up in the same psychiatric ward a month after their relationship’s sudden end, though Rome’s case of amnesia means that she doesn’t remember the relationship at all.

Recovery

Alan and Tricia Hamilton are very happy. He’s the head of a building firm and on top of his game. She’s a part-time beautician and mother to their two sons. One day their perfect, if unremarkable, life is torn apart when a last-minute decision to pop out for a quick drink with a colleague sees Alan step out in front of a passing car. The resulting accident leaves him in a deep coma but with remarkably few physical injuries. Desperately worried about him, Tricia is delighted when he comes round – only to discover that the man she loved has disappeared. His behaviour’s changed, he’s lost all of his inhibitions and he veers from angry and frustrated to vulnerable and childlike. Simple tasks like making toast and getting dressed are beyond him, he’s unable to hold down the job he loves and he plays and laughs with his sons as if he’s a child. Alan’s behaviour puts his relationship with Tricia under intolerable pressure…

Forward/Backward

Clayton lost his wallet, and he hasn’t paid the water bill. Which wouldn’t be so bad, except he also lost his job sweeping up at the theater. Small, East Texas towns like Reklaw don’t have too many jobs for guys with a brain injury, slight paralysis and an occasional lack of good judgment. FORWARD/BACKWARD tells the story of Clayton Miles, brain injury survivor and East Texas charmer. Due to a “vehicular collision at the age of 16,” Clayton doesn’t walk, talk or think like most people. The untimely death of his uncle means Clayton must come home early from brain injury camp and return to his father, Willie, a truck driver who has essentially given up on his own life. When Clayton’s best friend, Josh, gets back from the Marines, Clayton couldn’t be happier. He’s sure the good old days of drinking, chasing girls and philosophizing have returned. But Josh isn’t the same guy who left four years ago. He’s no longer satisfied with just living in Reklaw, working for minimum wage and spending his money on beer and cigarettes. Josh dreams of Hawaii, of Willie Nelson concerts, of a life beyond this small East Texas town. And ultimately, despite the responsibility he feels for Clayton, his ticket out of Reklaw becomes painfully clear. For Clayton, it seems that an endless series of accidents, funerals, jobs, screw-ups, well-meaning family members, friends and girlfriends are what make up his life. But also humor and poetry and passion. And if that’s not enough, Clayton can always have just one more chance, can’t he? FORWARD/BACKWARD is Clayton’s story, but it is just as much a story about how the people who encounter Clayton understand him – or don’t. As his friends and family grow and change, Clayton remains relatively unchanged. How much of Clayton is his brain injury, and how much is him? Can you even separate the two? Set against the backdrop of a small-town America soon to be rocked by the events of September 11th, the boundary between you and the underworld is only a matter of pumping a little oil, taking a drive down those winding, East Texas roads or signing away your life just for a chance to get out.

Northern Lights

Northern Lights is a story of love between two brothers who in different ways stands unsure in the world. A story about their relationship that for reasons neither remembers any longer has turned smiles into silence. The two brothers are going on a voyage together in search of the intimacy that they no longer possess; but it’s not going to be an easy journey. Samuel, the older brother, has a serious brain damage, while the younger brother Simon’s doubts are harder to diagnose. Simon and Samuel set off to find the Northern Lights. But how do you find the Northern Light, and how do you find the light within yourself?

Put Me Together Again

Documentary from England

Mindshock: Sex on the Brain

The story of a man who suffered a head injury in a skiing accident that left him with no sexual inhibitions. The programme explores how the human brain is, under normal circumstances, able to repress and control animal instinct, as well as examining the case of a former teacher on trial for abusing his stepdaughter. Neurologists claim his crime was the result of a brain tumour crushing his frontal lobe.

Mother’s Day

After a head injury, Doug goes to stay with his gay older brother, Isaac and his lover Josh. When the addled Doug mistakes Isaac for his Dad, it’s only natural for transvestite Josh to become Mom.

Nova: Season 29, Episode 3 – Secrets of the Mind

Graham Young has a condition called “blindsight” that allows him to “see” things others can’t see. Derek Steen and James Peacock are amputees with “phantom limb syndrome”, which causes each of them to feel pain in a missing arm. John Sharon is an epileptic whose seizures give him overwhelming spiritual feelings, and sometimes even delude him into believing he is God. David Silvera suffers from a rare condition called the capgras delusion, which causes him to believe that his parents are impostors, his home is an exact duplicate of the real thing and even that he is a copy of his real self. Dr. V.S. Ramachandran, a neuroscientist, has investigated these cases and explains to the viewer what neuroscience can tell us about them and what these rare brain conditions can tell us about the normal brain.

When Billy Broke His Head… and Other Tales of Wonder

A video first-person road movie about disability, civil rights, and the search for intelligent life after brain damage.

“Marwencol” is a documentary about the fantasy world of Mark Hogancamp.

After being beaten into a brain-damaging coma by five men outside a bar, Mark builds a 1/6th scale World War II-era town in his backyard. Mark populates the town he dubs “Marwencol” with dolls representing his friends and family and creates life-like photographs detailing the town’s many relationships and dramas. Playing in the town and photographing the action helps Mark to recover his hand-eye coordination and deal with the psychic wounds of the attack. When Mark and his photographs are discovered, a prestigious New York gallery sets up an art show. Suddenly Mark’s homemade therapy is deemed “art”, forcing him to choose between the safety of his fantasy life in Marwencol and the real world that he’s avoided since the attack. (- from marwencol.com)

50 First Dates  A romantic comedy about a girl with no short-term memory. Although there is potential for more, the movie is still funny (if you like Adam Sandler) .

A Beautiful Mind  stars Russell Crowe in an astonishing performance as brilliant mathematician John Nash, on the brink of international acclaim when he becomes entangled in a mysterious conspiracy. Now only his devoted wife (Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly) can help him in this powerful story of courage, passion and triumph. Directed by Ron Howard.

Memento – An amazing story told in reverse about a man who wakes up with no short term memory, yet manages to work his way through the story backwards to figure out who is his enemy and why.

The Notebook An elderly man (James Garner) visits a nursing home to read entries from a notebook to a woman (Gena Rowlands) with Alzheimer’s disease about a long-ago love affair in which they were involved. Based on the Nicholas Sparks novel.

Reclaiming Your Life “living with the long term effects of a concussion” “Reclaiming Your Life” is essential for anyone who has sustained a (MTBI) post concussion syndrome or who lives or works with people who have survived a traumatic brain injury. This valuable resource shares the experience, strength and hope of other survivors and helps understand and overcome the frustrating symptoms and regain a life of health and vitality.

More than one and one half million people in the United States and more than eleven million people world wide suffers this form of brain injury each year. It is the leading cause of death for men under the age of forty five. Although it can happen to anyone, anywhere, or anytime — in auto, sports or work -related accidents; in household falls, or through physical assault traumatic brain injury is still one of the foremost misdiagnosed or under diagnosed health concerns today. A significant percentage of victims suffer debilitating symptoms for months or years afterward, from depression, learning disabilities and chronic fatigue syndrome to migraines, vision problems and seizures. And the fact remains, After a brain injury, a person is never the same.

As a survivor of traumatic brain injury, Gary Crabtree and the many others you will meet in this film are living proof that after a brain injury a person’s life is changed forever. Gary Crabtree has set out to provide help, support and information for other survivors of mild traumatic brain injury, their families and friends to help them make sense of this sometimes mystifying condition.

Picturing Aphasia An estimated one million people in the United States have aphasia, but most people have never heard of it. Aphasia is a communication condition caused by damage to the language areas of the brain. This damage can come from a traumatic brain injury or a stroke. There is no cure for aphasia but there is rehabilitation.

Every person’s brain is unique, and so are the language disabilities a person could develop from damage. Aphasia can affect both comprehension and production of spoken and written language. Every person with aphasia has a different level of comprehension and production. Aphasia does not affect a person’s intelligence in any way. Their brain function has not been altered beyond their language ability.

Picturing Aphasia is designed to function both as a way to raise awareness and understanding for aphasia and as a therapeutic device for people with aphasia. The idea was to give each person in the interview a forum to communicate with people who have aphasia and people who do not. It is an experiment in communication. Visual symbols are by no means a universal form of communication. The drawings created to interpret each personIs statements were designed to help bridge the gap between hearing, seeing, and comprehending. The images are to act as an aid in the understanding of the spoken language.

The goal of Picturing Aphasia is to allow people who have just developed aphasia an opportunity to understand that rehabilitation is not only possible but likely.

The Loss of Nameless Things In 1978 Oakley Hall lll was a promising playwright on the verge of national recognition when a mysterious fall from a bridge took his artistic life away. He suffered horrific head injuries, was hospitalized nearly a year and incapicitated much longer. The Loss of Nameless Things is the haunting tale of Hall’s fall from grace and what happens when, twenty five years later, a theater company stages the very play he was writing the night he fell.

Brain Injury Dialogues Though he appears normal, Rick Franklin’s brain injury has made his life anything but. Teaming up with veteran documentary maker and friend Lyell Davies, Rick explores the impact that brain injury has had on himself and other survivors.

As they visit with brain injury survivors, invisible aspects of this disability become more clear; we see the wide range of deficits that survivors must face, both physically and mentally, and learn how no two brain injuries are alike.

We also hear how survivors learn to deal with life after a brain injury by means of personal, medical, and even political strategies.Comments by a cognitive therapist and a disability studies scholar offer additional insight into this disability that affects far more people than you might suspect.Includes an interview with disability rights advocate, Zona Roberts.

60 Minutes – A Blow to the Brain Devastating, degenerative brain disease has been shown to be the result of severe repetitive head injuries such as concussions, and no one is more at risk than athletes. Former Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson tells Bob Simon that his depression and other cognitive problems are due to the more than 50 concussions he says he suffered on the field.

60 Minutes – Awakening There are as many as 300,000 Americans living with such serious brain injuries that they are trapped in what is called a “minimally conscious state” – they can’t talk, walk, or eat. Most will never emerge from this state, but for a few, there might be hope. Recently, a few brain-damaged patients — who had been unresponsive for years — had awakenings after, ironically, being given the sleep medication Ambien. Anderson Cooper reports.

A Distant Memory a One Woman Show By Jennifer Field A near-fatal car accident left Jennifer Field with a traumatic brain injury at the age of 17. Through the autobiographical one-woman show “A Distant Memory” Jennifer shares her journey of hope and recovery. Brain injury survivors identify with the struggles of Jennifer and her family and draw hope and inspiration from the autobiography of the successful brain injury rehabilitation and recovery of Jennifer Field. A Distant Memory is a critically acclaimed, autobiographical one-woman show that enjoyed an extended run at The Ruskin Group Theatre in Los Angeles in 2005 and has since been taken on the road to colleges and rehabilitation facilities throughout the country, and is now on DVD. Determined and unwilling to give up, Jennifer ignored her doctor’s prognosis and with the help of her loving and dedicated Mother, Joanne Field, combed the globe in search of treatments and therapies that would help her regain her life. The slow and often despairing journey took every ounce of strength and commitment they had. Jennifer outlines four rehabilitation treatments she found most helpful in the rehabilitation of her Traumatic Brain Injury and how these helped her regain a productive life. Jennifer now leads a full life helping other brain injury survivors via the J Field Foundation. Jennifer speaks at Brain Injury related events as a keynote speaker, and performs her show at schools and smaller venues. The proceeds benefit the J Field Foundation which helps others brain injury survivors. Jennifer’s true story and successful therapies are all in this A Distant Memory DVD, and all proceeds go to the J Field Foundation.

Home Front To date, tens of thousands of American troops have been wounded in the war in Iraq. What happens when they come home? Home Front captures the story of these soldiers and their families, told intimately through the Feldbusch family of western Pennsylvania, and their wounded son, Jeremy. The result is an unprecedented and insightful view of how one American family copes with events that have forever changed them. A heartbreaking and inspiring true story, Home Front gets behind the often-sanitized myth of a war to reveal its true human cost.

Post Concussion What does it take to change your life for the better? How about a severe blow to the head. In this semi-auto-biographical story, Matthew Kang is a cutthroat consultant out of touch with his family and in a dead-end relationship. After a car vs. pedestrian accident he is forced to take stock of his life. Follow Matthew as finds real love and a sense of humor in this brutally funny, unsentimental yet oddly inspiring portrayal of one man’s journey after a serious head injury.

Finding Nemo Timid father journeys to find his lost son. Accompanied by Dory, a fish with short-term memory loss (retrograde amnesia). “I think I lost somebody, but I can’t remember.” Accurate account of TBI and retrograde amnesia. Dory cannot learn or retain new information. Dory cannot recall names, where she is going or what she is doing.

Finding Nemo portrays the frustration others may feel when dealing with TBI deficits. It also portrays others’ acceptance of those with memory loss and the positive contributions the latter have to offer.

At the worst times Dory is lost, alone and confused. In the best times Dory is eternally present, exuberant and fearless.