Maite Alberdi: The Eternal Memory

Take a look at the top page photos, Chilean director Maite Alberdi is the one to the left. A true documentary star, whose films “Tea Time”, “The Grown-Ups” and “The Mole Agent” have been praised on this site. Her new film “The Eternal Memory” has been awarded many times. I have chosen to bring the fine annotation of CPH:DOX, here it is:

Beautiful and genuine, this Sundance winner from Chile is an intimate account of a woman’s deep love for her husband, who is slowly losing his memory. An audience favourite and a contender for most beautiful love film of the year.

Paulina and Augusto have been together for 23 years. She is a former Minister of Culture and an actress. He was a popular TV journalist for many years. They live in the beautiful house they built together many years ago. It is filled with memories that Augusto is slowly forgetting. For he has Alzheimer’s and his memory is leaking out of him until he can’t even recognise himself in the mirror. But even though Augusto is alone in his head, Paulina is constantly by his side. The more he forgets, the more her love for him grows, because even though he forgets, her feelings remain the same. ‘The Eternal Memory’ is a touchingly beautiful film about the love of two people cast in the purest form. A deserving winner of this year’s Sundance Festival.

Chile, 2003, 85 mins.

 Still: CPH:DOX

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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