First Cousin Once Removed

The documentary was made from inside a family. The director Alan Berliner films his own cousin. His cousin is called Edwin Honig. Honig was a poet and a translator. He worked in literature for many years. Then he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. The illness advances over time. Words and names begin to go. Berliner films him over the course of years. The filming spread over five years. Honig also taught at a university. The man in front of the camera changes. On some days he remembers his old poems. On others he does not know the person facing him. His friends and former students speak in the film as well. Archive footage is used too. Alan Berliner directed the seventy eight minute documentary. The American production was finished in 2012.