With more than 57 million people living with dementia, Chris Hemsworth shares his family’s experience battling the disease.
In National Geographic’s first look at Chris Hemsworth: an unforgettable road tripDirected by Tom Barbor-Might, the Australian actor and his father Craig hit the road on motorbikes while the patriarch was suffering from early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.
“My dad and I are going on a road trip, into our past,” Chris explains in the trailer released Thursday. “He has early-stage Alzheimer’s. I want to do everything I can to help him. It turns out this experience could help fight the disease.”
The MCU star explained that “different places instantly bring those memories to life” for his father as they traveled across Australia for the hour-long documentary, which premieres November 23 on National Geographic and streams November 24 on Disney+ and Hulu.
As well as rekindling their bond and strengthening memories of his father, Chris explores the effective science of social bonding with Craig, guided by Dr Suraj Samtani, a dementia specialist and clinical psychologist at the Center for Healthy Brain Aging at the University of New South Wales. Dr. Samtani worked with the Hemsworth family for a year.
“My dad and I had always talked about moving back to the Northern Territory, where our family had lived years ago, but we had never been able to set aside the time to do it,” Chris said. “More recently, the idea of taking this road trip re-emerged with more pressing importance. The result was a journey that was deeper, more moving and more surprising than I expected.”
Chris Hemsworth: an unforgettable road trip is produced by Protozoa, Nutopia and Wild State for National Geographic. Tom Watt-Smith, Peter Lovering, Arif Nurmohamed and Jane Root are executive producers of Nutopia. Creators Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel of Protozoa also serve as executive producers, and Chris Hemsworth, Ben Grayson and Brandon Hill serve as executive producers of Wild State. directs the documentary. Bengt Anderson and Simon Raikes are executive producers for National Geographic.
