The Eternal Memory

Augusto Góngora was a well known journalist in Chile, part of the teams reporting through censorship during the dictatorship, and he worked to put the country's memory on record. Now he has Alzheimer's. His wife, the actress and former culture minister Paulina Urrutia, cares for him. The film follows their days. Maite Alberdi directs. The irony comes directly from the subject. Góngora spent his life preventing his country from forgetting; now he is the one forgetting. The documentary does not press the parallel, it simply places the two side by side: a young, sharp journalist in the archive footage, and a man trying to remember his wife's name in the present. Paulina Urrutia shot some of the material herself. During the pandemic the crew could not enter the house and the camera was left with her; the closest moments in the film come from those recordings. Alberdi's method is not distanced but internal. She worked with the family over a long period, which is what makes the hardest moments of the illness filmable. It was nominated for the documentary Oscar and won the grand jury prize at Sundance. Augusto Góngora died in 2023. Who it is for: viewers interested in documentaries about memory, ageing and care, and in Chile's recent history. Who it is not for: it is emotionally heavy, and the progression of the illness is shown without softening.