‘Susan’ Is an Intimate Portrait of Living with Dementia – dCFF25
Jo Light
The Cinematropolis
June 16, 2025
Susan, a documentary that premiered at the 2025 deadCenter Film Festival, follows Susan Suchan, a woman navigating life with frontotemporal dementia and primary progressive aphasia—the same diagnosis as actor Bruce Willis.
FTD attacks the brain’s frontal and temporal lobes, gradually altering how people think, act, and communicate. FTD undermines personality, judgment, emotion, and expression.
While most people might retreat after learning their brain is betraying them, Suchan does the opposite. This Tulsa woman becomes an advocate, and director Russ Kirkpatrick’s intimate documentary captures her journey over several years.
The documentary’s greatest strength lies in Suchan herself.
“I don’t do pitiful. I don’t like it,” she declares.
Instead of hiding from her diagnosis, she travels to meet others facing the same fight and challenges. She finds medical professionals who listen to patients rather than just talk around them. She wants people with dementia to have a voice in their own care.
Kirkpatrick told the Tulsa World that he wants to change the audience’s perception of people with dementia. The film also explores Suchan’s desire to “self-exit,” rather than wait for the disease to run its full course.
Suchan’s family stays front and center. The documentary explores the emotional toll on Suchan’s daughters, in particular. Heather assumes a more caregiver-like role, while Emily struggles with her fraught relationship with her mother, initially pulling back and appearing late in the narrative.
The film captures quiet moments around dinner tables and at the pool, showing how normal life continues even as everything changes. These scenes unfold across Midwest rivers and suburban Tulsa neighborhoods. Eventually, they go as far as Panama City Beach for a family trip that becomes the film’s emotional anchor.
The most emotionally resonant part of the story, in my opinion, is when Suchan visits a former partner of 10 years. Their relationship ended early in Suchan’s diagnosis, but her ex is very much still in love with her, and she says as much. This sequence provides a brief but welcome glimpse into Suchan’s life from another perspective.
The film loses its way somewhat in the second half when it shifts its focus to an upcoming family vacation. While Suchan’s voice remains compelling throughout, the extended sequences building up to and documenting the family’s beach trip feel a bit drawn out, as if to develop unnecessary tension, resulting in a sudden conclusion.
The documentary works best when focusing on Suchan’s determination to maintain agency and express herself. She has moments of stunning clarity, like when she compares the mind to an opening flower.
Susan succeeds in Kirkpatrick’s goal of changing perceptions about dementia by refusing to treat its subject as a victim. Despite some pacing issues, it’s a moving testament to the power of advocacy and the importance of listening to people with dementia rather than just talking about them.
To learn more, visit the film’s website at www.susansdoc.com. You can also find more deadCenter 2025 coverage like this at The Cinematropolis.
Jo Light is an Oklahoma-based freelance journalist. She has worked for over five years as a Hollywood story analyst, teaches a college-level media writing class and continues to develop screenplays of her own. Her work is regularly featured at No Film School and The Oklahoma Gazette.
