Memories of a Penitent Heart | |
---|---|
Directed by | Cecilia Aldarondo |
Written by | Cecilia Aldarondo |
Produced by | Cecilia Aldarondo, Patricia Benabe |
Cinematography | Brennan Vance |
Edited by | Hannah Buck |
Music by | Angélica Negrón |
Release date |
|
Running time | 74 minutes |
Country | United States |
Languages | English Spanish |
Memories of a Penitent Heart is an American documentary film which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2016 [1] and aired in shortened form on PBS's documentary series POV on July 31, 2017. [2] Written and directed by Cecilia Aldarondo, the film centers on her attempts to find out more about the life and death of her uncle Miguel Dieppa, an aspiring actor and playwright who died of an AIDS-related illness when Aldarondo was six years old and had only ever met him once. [3]
The film had its genesis when Aldarondo received some old family home movies, including footage of Dieppa, from her mother. [4] Knowing that her uncle's partner's name was Robert but not knowing his last name, she eventually succeeds in tracking him down through the film's Kickstarter campaign — he is now living as a Roman Catholic priest going by the name of Father Aquin. [3]
Through interviews with Aquin, other friends who knew them and her own family, she uncovers the complicated emotional truth of his life and death, in particular the conflict between Miguel's partner and his staunchly Catholic mother Carmen as Miguel was dying of AIDS. [3]
Howard Elliott Ashman was an American playwright, lyricist and stage director. He is most widely known for his work on feature films for Walt Disney Animation Studios, for which Ashman wrote the lyrics and Alan Menken composed the music. Ashman has been credited as being a main driving force behind the Disney Renaissance. His work included songs for Little Shop of Horrors, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. Tim Rice took over to write the rest of the songs for the latter film after Ashman's death in 1991.
Holger Bernhard Bruno Mischwitzky, known professionally as Rosa von Praunheim, is a German film director, author, producer, professor of directing and one of the most influential and famous queer activists in the German-speaking world. A pioneer of Queer Cinema and gay activist from the very beginning, von Praunheim was a key co-founder of the modern lesbian and gay movement in Germany and Switzerland. He was an early advocate of AIDS awareness and safer sex. His films center on queer-related themes and strong female characters, are characterized by excess and employ a campy style. They have featured such personalities as Keith Haring, Larry Kramer, Diamanda Galás, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Judith Malina, Jeff Stryker, Jayne County, Divine, Charlotte von Mahlsdorf and a row of Warhol superstars. In over 50 years, von Praunheim has made more than 150 films. His works influenced the development of LGBTQ+ movements worldwide.
Maureen Judge is a Canadian Screen Awards (CSA) winning filmmaker and television producer. Much of her work is documentary and explores themes of love, betrayal and acceptance in the context of the modern family, with the most recent films focusing on the dreams and challenges of contemporary youth.
Judd Milo Ehrlich is an American documentary film director and producer. In 2016, The New York Times said "Ehrlich, an Emmy-winning documentarian, clearly knows his craft."
Thomas Allen Harris is a critically acclaimed, interdisciplinary artist who explores family, identity, and spirituality in a participatory practice. Since 1990, Harris has remixed archives from multiple origins throughout his work, challenging hierarchy within historical narratives through the use of pioneering documentary and research methodologies that center vernacular image and collaboration. He is currently working on a new television show, Family Pictures USA, which takes a radical look at neighborhoods and cities of the United States through the lens of family photographs, collaborative performances, and personal testimony sourced from their communities..
Tami Kashia Gold is a documentary filmmaker, visual artist and educator. She is also a professor at Hunter College of the City University of New York in the Department of Film and Media Studies.
Nancy Schwartzman is an American documentary filmmaker, human rights activist, member of the Directors Guild of America, and The Academy.
Joe Brewster is an American psychiatrist and filmmaker who directs and produces fiction films, documentaries and new media focused on the experiences of communities of color.
Natalia Almada is a Mexican-American photographer and filmmaker. Her work as a filmmaker focuses on Mexican history, politics, and culture in insightful and poetic films that push the boundaries of how the documentary form addresses social issues. Her films include "Everything Else " (2016), El Velador (2011), El General (2009), All Water Has a Perfect Memory (2001), and Al Otro Lado (2005), and her work has appeared at numerous national and international venues, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Sundance Film Festival, the Guggenheim Museum, the Munich International Film Festival, and the Cannes Directors' Fortnight. She won the 2009 Sundance Directing Award Documentary for her film El General. She is a 2012 MacArthur Fellow and the first Latina filmmaker to win the award.
Sławomir Grünberg is a Polish-born naturalized American documentary producer, director and cameraman.
For the Love of Spock is a 2016 American documentary film about actor Leonard Nimoy produced by 455 Films and directed by his son Adam Nimoy, who started it before his father's death, at the age of 83, on February 27, 2015.
Jason DaSilva is an American and Canadian documentary film director, producer, writer, and a disability rights community member best known for the Emmy Award-winning documentary, When I Walk. The Emmy award-winning film follows his diagnosis of primary progressive multiple sclerosis for seven years as he progresses from cane, to walker, to wheelchair. He is also the founder of the non-profit organization AXS Lab and of AXS Map, a crowd sourced Google map based platform which rates the accessibility of businesses.
Maite Alberdi Soto is a Chilean film producer, director, documentarian, screenwriter, and film critic. She is the founder of Micromundo Producciones.
Amanda Micheli is an American director and the founder of Runaway Films. In June 2022, she signed with The United Talent Agency.
Angélica Negrón is a Puerto-Rican composer and multi-instrumentalist recognized for composing music for accordions, robotic instruments, toys, and electronics, as well as for chamber ensembles, orchestras, choirs, and films. Negrón is a founding member of the electronic indie band Balún, where she sings and plays the accordion. She is based in Brooklyn, New York, where she is a teaching artist for New York Philharmonic's Very Young Composers program and Lincoln Center Education.
Terrence McNally: Every Act of Life is a 2018 documentary film about playwright Terrence McNally. It was directed, produced and written by Jeff Kaufman, and produced by Marcia S. Ross. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2018. It will be distributed by The Orchard in November 2018. An expanded and illustrated version of the script will be published by Smith and Kraus in October 2018. Terrence McNally: Every Act of Life aired June 14, 2019 on PBS’ “American Masters.”
Andrew "Andy" Cohen is a three-time Emmy nominated independent filmmaker and journalist whose film To Kill a Tiger was nominated for a 2024 Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary.
Earthrise is a 2018 documentary by Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee. The film tells the story of the first image captured of the Earth from space in 1968, as recalled by the Apollo 8 astronauts. The film premiered at Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, 2018 and had its online premiere on the New York Times Op-Docs and the PBS Series, POV, on October 2, 2018. In 2018, it won the Audience Award at AFI DOCS and won Best Documentary Short at Raindance Film Festival. After airing on PBS, it was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Short Documentary at the 40th News and Documentary Emmy Award.
Jon Shenk is an Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated documentary film director and director of photography, known for his films Lead Me HomeAthlete A, An Inconvenient Sequel, Audrie & Daisy,The Island President, Lost Boys of Sudan. He is the co-founder, with his wife Bonni Cohen, of Actual Films, a documentary film company based in San Francisco, CA. He co-directed and photographed Lead Me Home which premiered in 2021 at the Telluride Film Festival, was acquired by Netflix, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2022.