Strokecast

Sometimes art can help our friends and family understand our lives when we cannot. We're all too close to our own situations to adequately explain them. I'm gradually working my way through a list of stroke related movies. It's not always easy to watch them, but they are often rewarding. This week, I talk about 2 of them. My Beautiful Broken Brain This film chronicle the life of film producer Lotje Sodderland in the year after her stroke. We see her struggle with language, improve, decline, and generally come to terms with her new way of seeing and communicating with the world.     The Diving Bell and the Butterfly This film is "based on a true story." It's based on a book written by Jean-Dominique Bauby, the former editor of Elle magazine in Paris, and it's his memoir. Bauby suffered a stroke while at the peak of his professional life. When he woke from a coma, he had Locked-In Syndrome. He had all his cognitive abilities but he couldn't speak and he couldn't move. He couldn't communicate with the world ou