The audience that has just seen the film “Glenn Campbell…I’ll Be Me” Sunday night in the Performing Arts Center at BHS appeared to be impressed, and a bit dazed, by the insights they had just received.
The film, directed by actor James Keach, depicted the events in and around Campbell’s “Goodbye Tour,” which took the singer and his family and friends around the country for one final round of shows after Campbell had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2011.
What had been planned as a three-week series of shows turned into a national tour with stops in 151 cities all around the country. The film showed life on the road for Campbell, his wife Kim, kids and band-mates Ashley and Cal Campbell and other close associates. Campbell was dependent on a teleprompter for each show, but he also showed that he had lost none of his amazing ability on the guitar.
The film also included a number of visits to his doctor, including some frank discussions of behavioral changes and cognitive abilities Campbell was experiencing as the disease progressed.
The film also included interviews with music superstars Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow, Paul McCartney, and Blake Shelton, along with commentary from fellow Arkansan President Bill Clinton and video of an appearance with Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show” at the beginning of the tour.
The screening was preceded by a reception in the PAC lobby hosted by ACT on Alzheimer’s-Becker organizer Tami Kolbinger and a group of volunteers that included Denice Freih from Becker Faith in Action and Rita Waxon from the Guardian Angels organization.
ACT is also planning to show another film related to Alzheimer’s titled “Still Alice” sometime in November. The film stars Julianne Moore as a college professor who is slowly being robbed of her cognitive abilities by dementia, and was shown in theatres all over the country earlier this year.
To find more information on these or other events, go to www.actonalz.org/becker or TamiKolbinger@gsc-mn.org.
