I’m Nadine Niemann, a filmmaker whose latest documentary follows Daniel, a German man in his 30s, who developed amnesia after a serious traffic accident and now only has a six-hour memory window. AMA.

Does your protagonist have special strategies to create long term memories with his family?

Yes, he has a lot of strategies. The most important strategy is that he writes a diary every day, takes a lot of photos and some videos also.

Do you know if he'd watched the movie 50 First Dates with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore?

Yes, Daniel knows the movie. But in real life it is not so romantic like in this movie

Fascinating. Does he remember you the next day or do you have to reintroduce yourself everyday?

If we shot two days in a row, Daniel could remember us. But if we shot two weeks later, he would never have recognised us. But we took precautions. I always talked to him one day before shooting. He can remember voices and creates familiarity. And he had a photo of us hanging in his kitchen.

Thanks everybody for your questions. I was pleased to answer them. Goodbye

Hi everyone, I'm Nadine, I'm really looking forward to answering all your questions

I saw it when it was shown on Arte France, the documentary is poignant, the end is rather sad. When you put yourself in Daniel's shoes, you suffer. The people around him seem to suffered much more than he did (at least that's the impression I got).

How is Daniel doing since the end of the shooting?

Does he regularly see his (ex-) wife and child?

Did he remember being filmed at each shoot?

Did you cut a lot of scenes each day because he was repeating himself?

How did you feel when you were filming it (perhaps the question is too personal )?

Yes, it is a very moving story that also touched us very much.

Daniel is doing well. He continues to have very close contact with Katharina and his son. The relationship is good and he sees both of them regularly and often.

Did he remember being filmed at each shoot?

Did you cut a lot of scenes each day because he was repeating himself?

How did you feel when you were filming it (perhaps the question is too personal )?

Every shot was the first shot for him. Except when we have shot two days in a row.

Sometimes he repeated himself, but we prepared every shot for him, because it was important for him to prepare himself. Because you can't talk about things you can't remember. So we send him the topics for the shooting day, that he could read in his diary about what was happened to himself, for example.

No, it's too personal :-) We were always impressed! Because of his and Katharina's strength and positive thinking. After every shot we talked a lot about the value of memories and how much memories define us as people. Daniel and Katharina have touched us very much!

Is there any hope for Daniel to ever be able to make new long term memories?

Also how does this affect his ability to recognise children that he knew before the accident. Can he understand/recognise when someone’s grown from a child to a teenager for example, or baby to a child?

Is there any hope for Daniel to ever be able to make new long term memories?

Also how does this affect his ability to recognise children that he knew before the accident. Can he understand/recognise when someone’s grown from a child to a teenager for example, or baby to a child?

There is a very little hope. There is a German guy called "Theo Jäger" who experienced the exact same situation. After 25 years, it was possible for him to store memories in the long term again.

No, he can't. He can remember person before the accident but only how they looked at this time.

How well does Christopher Nolan’s Memento portray those with no short term memory? Is it as simple as suddenly not having a clue where you are and how you got there?

The main character in Memento has a very severe form of short-term memory loss. But yes, it is a realistic portrayal. It's a hard cut in life and very difficult in daily life

How do you find these folks to interview?

I knew Katharina before she met Daniel. First time when I met Katharina and Daniel together and we talked about his restrictions I was really impressed and fascinated. So I started to think about doing a documentary about this topic and about the story of Daniel. And he was excited, because it is very important for him to bring the topic "Limitations due to craniocerebral trauma" into the public.

Hello Nadine , i havent watched your documentaries , but really looking forward to.

when you were done with the documentary , what did you learn from it that you didn't know before meeting Daniel ? Do you see life differently now ?

Are you on your way to make a new film/documentary ? any inspirations yet ?

Thank you very much

Hello Nadine , i havent watched your documentaries , but really looking forward to.

when you were done with the documentary , what did you learn from it that you didn't know before meeting Daniel ? Do you see life differently now ?

Are you on your way to make a new film/documentary ? any inspirations yet ?

Oh yes, I learned a lot of things. The most important thing was how important memories are for our life, for our relationships...For every kind of relationship! And I learned a lot about the importance of our brain and that we (or scientists) still don't know much about how it works the way it does. So, yes, I see life a little bit differently, now. I appreciate my memories much more now!

Yes, I have some new film projects. One of them "Synaesthesia - Life with linked senses" goes in a similar direction. It is about people whose brains are connected a little differently than normal and they therefore see the world differently than the majority of people.

Does he KNOW that he can’t remember things more than a day before, or is he just perpetually confused?

Yes, he knows. So, sometimes it is very hard for him to move on.

Has he met Clive Wearing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vwigmktix2Y

How similar is his condition to Wearings?

No, he never met Clive Wearing. The problem is similar, but Daniel can store memories significantly longer than Wearing. This can sometimes be up to 24 hours. Wearing can't store information for longer than a few minutes...

If you played him his favourite songs would it be like hearing them for the first time? The same with films?

Would he enjoy them as if hearing/seeing them for the first time?

This is a good question. Daniel often makes jokes about watching films, because when he likes a film he will watch it very often. Because, he knows that he likes the film but can't remember the content.

Music is very important for him, because music can bring up memories in him. Memories before the accident. He loves that music brings him back old memories.

So when Daniel sleeps is it like a pause button on his memory or does he wake up completely reset?

When he wakes up it is like a reset. He can't remember the last day or the day before and so on... He lives for the moment

That is incredible. How thorough are his notes? Because he's very good at making it seem in the interview like he remembers these things he's talking about. It seems very natural.

That is incredible. How thorough are his notes? Because he's very good at making it seem in the interview like he remembers these things he's talking about. It seems very natural.

He is a perfect actor. His strategies have become so good that you don't notice his limitations unless you know about them. But only if he can prepare himself. When he knows that he will meet people or that he has appointments and if he knows what is being talked about. And the story about his accident he learned by heart.

If he keeps thinking about something, does he keep remembering that thing? Or is sleep always the end.

Mostly sleep is the end. He can write down his thoughts in his diary, but he loses the emotions to his thoughts. Does that make sense?

That's an amazing documentary. Very touching topic. I cannot understand how difficult and exhausting living must be for Daniel.

Do you know how hard it was for Daniel to create a new routine or way of living after the split up?

Imagine being able to watch the lotr extended edition (or your other fav movie / series) for the first time every night :)

That's a great strategy to at least get something positive out of an otherwise terrible condition.

It was very hard for him. In the beginning he was lost. The impairments were even worse than now. He could store information only for a few hours. A Neuropsychologist helped him to find a way in his new life with a lot of strategies.

Have individuals like this, or this guy in particular, tried a combination therapy of Lion's Mane mushroom (for neurogenesis) and Psilocybin (for restructuring connections) to try and rebuild their mind?

Oh, I can only tell you that Daniel didn't try it until now

So I caught some of your responses. You mentioned he could sort of recall you if you interviewed two days in a row. Has there been any though to video game playing? Something with level design or a boss mechanics fight. A way to see if he's recalling layouts or what needs to be done for the boss. It's something that you can do a lot daily amd over extended time. Maybe something in those lines can keep that latent memory going and maybe develop longer windows of memory.

I vaguely recall some part about my psych / lecture where they also had someone with long term memory issues. He would forget persons and experiences, but he would remember certain processes and spatial information. Like he could draw St. Nicholas house (draw the figure in one go, without going double on any line) on Frist try, even although he doesn't remember ever trying before.

I vaguely recall some part about my psych / lecture where they also had someone with long term memory issues. He would forget persons and experiences, but he would remember certain processes and spatial information. Like he could draw

St. Nicholas house

(draw the figure in one go, without going double on any line) on Frist try, even although he doesn't remember ever trying before.

Yes, it's the same with Daniel. A Neurologist told us that Daniel has learned such things in the past and therefore can do it automatically.

So I caught some of your responses. You mentioned he could sort of recall you if you interviewed two days in a row. Has there been any though to video game playing? Something with level design or a boss mechanics fight. A way to see if he's recalling layouts or what needs to be done for the boss. It's something that you can do a lot daily amd over extended time. Maybe something in those lines can keep that latent memory going and maybe develop longer windows of memory.

The time we spent with him and his family there was no therapy with video game playing. But maybe I can talk with him about the possibility of this way of therapy

Why 6 hours?

This stumped me until I realised you were allowed to go over lines, just not repeat them

In the beginning it has been six hours. Now he can save memories or informations and emotions one day. Mostly he looses it when he sleeps.

Do you see some resemblances with for instance autistic people? Or perhaps other mental disorders? For instance the requirement of having routines and the inability to properly filter information and giving priorities to them. For instance Daniel going to the train station and really needing to put in earphones to block and sooth out the many sounds and impressions. Obviously the causes are different for autistic people and Daniel, respectively a neurodevelopmental disorder and a severe brain trauma. Just interesting to see and note how enormously complex the brain can be and how much it can adapt to circumstances.

Oh, it's difficult for me to give you an answer to this question, because I don't have enough information about autistic people and mental disorders. I think some strategies are similar with the strategies of people with mental disorders.