Film Screening: Lady! and A Conversation on Caregiving

As a disease eats away at her husband's identity, a devoted wife wrestles with reclaiming her sense of self.  

Lady! is a documentary that follows caregiver Siti as she finds herself on an unmapped course in caring for her husband, Gary, who was diagnosed with young onset dementia when he was 50.  

The film chronicles Siti’s intimate and bittersweet journey as she takes on the hardest role in her life. What’s next—where does life go from here?  

After the screening, stay on for a conversation with the film’s producer, Toh Ee Ming, and Noorlinah Mohamed, an award-winning theatre actress with experience in dementia caregiving. The discussion will be moderated by Jason Foo, CEO of Dementia Singapore. Together, they will discuss the joys and challenges of caregiving, and how the arts may provide respite for both the caregiver and the person living with dementia.  

Producer/ Speaker: Toh Ee Ming

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Ee Ming is a freelance journalist who is passionate about social issues. Her stories have been published globally on news outlets like the Associated Press, Al Jazeera, South China Morning Post, Southeast Asia Globe, and more. She has covered everything from endangered vultures deep in the Himalaya, the aftermath of a disastrous toxic waste crisis in Malaysia, 24-hour childcare in Sweden to Finland’s creative senior living models. Her work has earned her multiple awards, including being recognised by the International Journalists’ Network.

Speaker: Noorlinah Mohamed

Noorlinah is an award-winning theatre actress who is also a teaching artist and creative producer in Singapore. In 2010, her mother Bee Bee bte Mohamed Salam was diagnosed with dementia. At that time, she was working on her PhD in the U.K. She took time off from her studies to learn about dementia and administer care for her mother. That experience with dementia caregiving led her to speaking engagements at various geriatric care forums. For 13 years she juggled her artistic endeavours with caregiving, which inspired her to generate a three-year women-focused arts festival called N.O.W. (Not Ordinary Work) dedicated to the lived experiences of women in both private and public life. Bee Bee Bte Mohamed Salam passed in May 2023.

Moderator: Jason Foo

Jason Foo is the Chief Executive Officer of Dementia Singapore Ltd (previously known as Alzheimer’s Disease Association), a social service agency set up in 1990 to address the growing concern of dementia prevalence in Singapore. With a vision of building a dementia-inclusive society, Dementia Singapore provides a whole host of programmes and services to tackle the challenges of dementia and to support people with dementia and their families.

Jason had served on the Board of Alzheimer’s Disease Association as a volunteer for 22 years before taking on the role of Chief Executive Officer in 2012. He is a Chartered Accountant by training with more than 25 years of experience in senior positions in the banking and financial industry before making the career switch to the social services sector.