By pairing punk with Parkinson’s in her joyous new film, Chiara Viale is challenging popular misconceptions about the chronic neurodegenerative disease. The New Music, which follows the journey of Adrian (Cilléin Mc Evoy), a young classical pianist who finds his world shaken by his diagnosis, courageously explores the reality of young-onset Parkinson’s.

“Before I started working on The New Music, I wasn’t even aware that Parkinson’s can affect young people,” Chiara tells me. “I came across it when I was researching the story. That shaped everything else.”

Chiara reached out to Young Parkinson’s Ireland (YPI), an organisation that works closely with people under the age of 50, who’ve been diagnosed with the disease. YPI, which became closely involved with the production, is entirely run by volunteers, and receives no government funding. In response, Chiara decided to donate the proceeds of the film to the organisation, as well as 20% of the money raised from the production’s crowd-funding campaign.

“People with Parkinson’s have been approving the script and the film at each stage of the process,” she explains. “Having their support made me so comfortable about our portrayal of Parkinson’s. With the film, we’re not necessarily trying to teach anything, but we are trying to raise awareness of the reality of a being diagnosed with Parkinson’s when you’re young. We wanted to show the hard journey towards getting back on your feet and finding new meaning in life after the diagnosis.”

For Chiara, who moved from Italy to Ireland to study screenwriting, the desire to depict a rare illness onscreen came from a deeply personal place.

“Things are more complicated for people with rare conditions,” she says. “My father had multiple system atrophy, and he passed away in 2013. I experienced first-hand what it feels like to be in a family where someone is affected by a rare condition, and how little support or information is available.”

Indeed, The Parkinson’s Association of Ireland’s website reports that, out of the estimated 0.2% of the population with the illness, only one in every 20 cases will be diagnosed under the age of 40.

“It could have been easier to portray a much more advanced stage of Parkinson’s, where you would see the tremors and other symptoms,” she notes, “but at the start you see a lot of fatigue, stress and depression. These things are less talked about.”

In The New Music, Adrian becomes involved with a Dublin-based punk band, joining the group as a keyboard player after struggling to come to terms with the end of his classical music career. Inevitably, music plays a major role in the film. David Sangster, a pianist and composer living with Parkinson’s, provided original classical pieces for the score, while Zachary Stephenson from Dublin alt-rock band Munky penned two songs. The soundtrack also features contributions from 12 international punk bands, including Jeff Rosenstock, Antillectual, Billy Liar and Bangers.

“I’m involved in the punk scene in Ireland and the UK,” Chiara says. “I have a great relationship with the artists whose music is featured in the film. The philosophy behind punk music is to do what you love, because you love it – and not care too much about the rules, or what you’re supposed to be doing.

“In the film, music has that universal role, in helping you through your healing. The use of music as therapy is very well known, especially for mental health. For people suffering from Parkinson’s, music and dancing can be an incredible support.”

The New Music premieres at the IndieCork Film Festival in October.

https://youtu.be/f9YF-qKmeco