According to Deadline, MTV Documentary Films has announced the return of the Oscar-nominated documentary The Eternal Memory to theaters through February exclusively at New York’s IFC Center and Santa Monica and Glendale’s Laemmle Monica Film Centers. There will also be a special Valentine’s Day Drive-In event at San Francisco’s West Wind Drive-In theater “where couples can celebrate the love story of Paulina and Augusto that Alberdi so wonderfully captured in the film.”
The film is described as follows: “Augusto and Paulina have been together in love for more than two decades. Eight years ago, their lives were forever changed by Augusto’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis. As one of Chile’s most prominent cultural commentators and television presenters, Augusto is no stranger to building an archive of memory. Now, he turns that work to his own life, trying to hold on to his identity with the help of his beloved Paulina, whose pre-eminence as a famous actress and Chilean Minister of Culture predates her ceaselessly inventive manner of engaging with her husband. Day by day, the couple face this challenge head-on, relying on the tender affection and sense of humor shared between them that remains, remarkably, fully intact.”
It should also be noted that Augusto Góngora had a prevalent role in the country’s history as he documented the people’s opposition to General Pinochet’s military dictatorship. Góngora played a role in reconnecting Chile with its culture before Pinochet’s reign. Góngora died at the age of 71 in May 2023.
After Oscar nominations were announced, Alberdi told Deadline, “For me, it’s a film more about collective and historical memory than about Alzheimer’s…When people see the film, they get involved [emotionally].” This is Alberdi’s second Oscar nomination, her first being for The Mole Agent in 2021. The Eternal Memory won the top prize for International Documentary at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it premiered.
Leave a Comment