The Eternal Memory (2023)
Director: Maite Alberdi Run Time: 85 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 2023
Starring: Augusto Góngora, Paulina Urrutia
Country: Chile
Language: Spanish with English subtitles
About the film:
Grand Jury Prize Winner, 2023 Sundance Film Festival
Official Selection, 2023 Berlin Film Festival
Nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 96th Academy Awards
Augusto and Paulina have been together and in love for 25 years. Eight years ago, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and his wife has since become his caretaker.
As one of Chile’s most prominent cultural commentators and television presenters, Augusto is no stranger to building an archive of memory, having been responsible for that herculean task following the Pinochet dictatorship and its systematic erasure of collective consciousness. Now he turns that work to his own life, trying to hold on to his identity with the help of his beloved. Day by day, the couple face this challenge head-on, adapting to the disruptions brought on by the taxing disease while relying on the tender affection and sense of humor shared between them that remains intact.
About the filmmaker:
Maite Alberdi is an acclaimed documentary filmmaker and producer. She became the first Chilean women to be nominated at the Academy Awards with her film The Mole Agent (2020), which was nominated for Best Documentary Feature and made the shortlist for Best International Feature Film.
Alberdi is the founder of the production company Micromundo Producciones, and her films have screened in more than 150 festivals. In 2011, she released her first feature documentary The Lifeguard (2011), followed by La Once (2014), The Grown-Ups (2016), and the award-winning short film I’m Not from Here (2016). Through her work, she developed a particular style characterized by the intimate portrait of small worlds, becoming one of the most important voices in Latin American documentary filmmaking. She is also co-author of the book “Documentary film theories in Chile 1957-1973” and has worked at different universities teaching documentary workshops and project development in Chile and abroad.
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