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All Water Has a Perfect Memory

Natalia Almada • 18m

Directed by Natalia Almada • Documentary • 2001 • 19 minutes

ALL WATER HAS A PERFECT MEMORY is a poignant experimental documentary that explores the effects of tragedy and remembrance on a bi-cultural family. At seven months old, filmmaker Natalia Almada lost her two-year-old sister, Ana Lynn, in a drowning accident at her childhood home in Mexico. Inspired by an essay written by Toni Morrison, in which she speaks of the Mississippi River’s ability to conjure memories, this moving piece serves as a meditation on the cultural and gender differences between the filmmaker’s North American mother and Mexican father in the face of their daughter’s death. Through personal recollections narrated by each family member, including her brother, Almada incorporates Super-8 home movies, photographs and fabricated images to weave together a touching and moving visual memory of Ana Lynn.

“A masterfully crafted documentary of sheer power and beauty...captures the essence of pain, loss, remembrance, and cultural differences.” —David Kwok Programmer, Tribeca Film Festival

Tags
all water has a perfect memory, american (u.s.) studies, americas, anthropology and archaeology, area studies, cinema studies, cultural and ethnic studies, cultural anthropology, death, death and dying, family, family issues, grief, health, healthcare, home movies, icarus films, latin america, latin american studies, latinx studies, medicine and nursing, mexico, north american studies, ovid, poetic, social studies, spanish, the, world regions

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