of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0144686X1300041XHow to cite this article: RAQUEL MEDINA (2014). From the medicalisation of dementia to the politics of memory and identity in three Spanish documentary lms: Bicicleta, cullera, poma, Las voces de la memoria and Bucarest: la memòria perduda. ABSTRACTThis paper explores how the concept of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is constructed through Spanish media and documentary films and how it is represented. The article analyses three documentary films and the cultural and social contexts in and from which they emerged: Solé's Bucarest: la memòria perduda [Bucharest: Memory Lost] (), Bosch's Bicicleta, cullera, poma [Bicycle, Spoon, Apple] () and Fabrá, Peris and Badia's Las voces de la memoria [Memory's Voices] (). The three documentary films approach AD from different perspectives, creating well-structured discourses of what AD represents for contemporary Spanish society, from medicalisation of AD to issues of personhood and citizenship. These three films are studied from an interdisciplinary perspective, in an effort to strengthen the links between ageing and dementia studies and cultural studies. Examining documentary film representations of AD from these perspectives enables semiotic analyses beyond the aesthetic perspectives of film studies, and the exploration of the articulation of knowledge and power in discourses about AD in contemporary Spain.

This paper studies the 2004 Spanish fictional novel by Andrés Barba, Ahora tocad música de baile, one of the first cultural texts dealing entirely with Alzheimer's disease to appear in Spain. It argues that the significance of Barba's fictional novel rests on two important issues: the ethics of representation of violence against vulnerable subjects and the ethics of care. The paper analyses how these two issues allow Barba to create a story in which the verbal and physical abuse to which the person living with Alzheimer's disease is subjected places the reader, on the one hand, as voyeur/witness of the abuse; and, on the other, as interpreter, and ultimately judge, of the fine line that separates euthanasia, assisted suicide and murder. The open ending of the novel defers all ethical and moral judgement to the reader. It examines how the novel offers a monolithic perspective about Alzheimer's disease, in which care is presented as a burden. In fact, this study shows that the novel's multi-layered structure and polyphonic nature places the emphasis on stigmas, stereotypes and negative metaphors around Alzheimer's disease, as found in contemporary social discourses.

In the last fifteen years Alzheimer's disease (AD) has changed the way in which developed countries have tended to perceive and deal with ageing. It has also become the main health problem needing to be resolved in both financial and social terms. If cancer was considered and labelled as the epidemic of the twentieth century, AD has soon been designated as the epidemic of the twenty-first century. This article analyses how AD is perceived and represented in two films, Amanecer de un sueño, directed in 2008 by Freddy Mas Franqueza, and ¿Y tú quién eres?, directed in 2007 by Antonio Mercero. As for ageing, questions of stigmatization and stereotyping around AD are discussed, and special consideration is given to the manner in which medical, social and political institutions in Spain have created a monolithic view of AD with the purpose of shaping a homogeneous social response to the disease. Current debates between those who perceive the disease as a social burden for the State and the family, and those who defend centring the discussion on the persons diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and their personhoods frame the analysis of these two films.keywords Alzheimer's disease, memory loss, ageing, stigmatization, stereotyping, Spanish film, personhood, Spanish health and social care policies Developed countries are growing 'old'. 1 The rise of the ageing population in EU countries, United States, Japan, China, and India is a reality, but the EU's 'old-age dependency ratio' (number of people aged sixty-five years and over relative to the working-age population aged between fifteen and sixty-four years) will be above the corresponding ratios of its global competitors by 2050(Fésüs et al., 2008. 2 In fact, by 2050, there will be 58 million people more over sixty-five in the EU than today, 1 I am very grateful to Beverly Adab for her advice and feedback on this essay. 2 With the notable exception of Japan.

A pesar de que el envejecimiento demográfico es un fenómeno global, el cine como producto cultural y barómetro de la realidad apenas captura este fenómeno ni lo hace visible. En las culturas occidentales, los cuerpos envejecidos no existen, se ocultan, con lo que están sujetos al estigma y la exclusión (Casper and Moore 2009). La discriminación que el envejecimiento sufre en el cine, sobre todo el envejecimiento positivo, es aún mayor cuando los sujetos son mujeres y/o no son heterosexuales. En este sentido, la película de Inés París y Daniela Féjerman, A mi madre le gustan las mujeres (2002), puede considerarse una excepción, a la vez que pionera en España, al tratar la salida del armario de una mujer de unos sesenta años, separada y madre de tres hijas ya adultas, que mantiene una relación con una mujer mucho más joven que ella 1. Sin embargo, tendrán que pasar nueve años hasta que dos directores vascos, Jon Garaño y Jose Mari Goenaga, estrenen 80 egunean-En 80 días-(2010), una película que plantea la relación sentimental y sexual entre dos mujeres de setenta años: una de ellas abiertamente lesbiana y otra casada que, hasta el encuentro con su amiga de la adolescencia, creía ser heterosexual. El presente artículo tiene como objetivo analizar la relación de estas dos mujeres en 80 egunean a través de la intersección de género, sexualidad y edad para así entender este texto fílmico como el lugar de encuentro de todas estas cuestiones. Dentro de este análisis también se estudiarán la identidad sexual y la edad como aspectos entrelazados que no pueden 1 Hay una larga tradición en el cine español de a partir de los 70 de presentar relaciones gais entre un hombre maduro y un joven efebo (Mira 2008)