Before Memory
Date:
January 9, 2023
Before Memory
Looking for gap financing, festival release,
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Logline
Joaquín obsessively films his daughter Galia from pregnancy, aiming to preserve her memories. Over time, blurred lines between reality and memory frustrate the family. Joaquín insists while he asks
himself the meaning of fatherhood.
Synopsis
Joaquín and Carla have been a couple for some time and become pregnant. He is going to study in Barcelona, and they decide to go together and try to “be a family.” He records messages for their future daughter, creating a window into the intimate universe of her
parents from the times before her birth. Galia is born, and the compulsion to document everything intensifies. He becomes a father obsessed with preserving the “memories” of his daughter before she develops the biological capacity to store them herself. The memories he tries to preserve are affected by the act of recording them. The boundary between the real, the imaginary, and the constructed begins to blur increasingly. Everyone is more irritable, the couple starts to fracture, Galia begins to react, and he devises sophisticated mechanisms to film without being seen.
The pandemic hits, and they separate.
Amid the separation, they learn that another child is on the way. They decide to have the child. They attempt to live together while being separated, but it doesn’t work. Joaquin records messages to future Galia, telling her how he feels, navigating that emotional carousel – an act of sincerity. Guilt consumes him because family life seems unfulfilling. He experiences flashes of clarity and moments of bewilderment and confusion.
Carla and Joaquin undergo online couples therapy, trying to heal
their relationship. Tadeo is born. Galia takes the camera and starts
asking the questions.
Director’s Profile
Joaquín González Vaillant (Montevideo, 1987). Polifacetic filmmaker and musician, with a master’s degree in Creative Documentary Filmmaking from Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona). His debut feature film Alter (2022) premiered worldwide at the Malaga Film Festival.
Among various personal projects, he was one of the collaborators on the documentary film A 60km/h (screened at IDFA in 2014 and in theaters nationwide), for which he also composed the soundtrack.
He directed, produced, and filmed 9 documentary spots for the project “Rostros de la Educación Uruguaya,” sponsored by the OEI. He wrote and directed the medium-length film Últimas Palabras (2021), which won several awards, including Tokyo.
Company Profile
Bocacha Films is the company of film producer Agustina Chiarino. A production house with instinct and curiosity as driving forces and a selection of projects focused on auteur cinema. With an inclination towards international co-production, we take care of the processes -human, technical and artistic- because the screen moves and reflects what we are. With more than 20 multi-award-winning films that premiered at the most prestigious festivals, Chiarino produced the features Giant, 3, So Much Water, El 5, The Waves, Madness On Air, Alelí, Bosco, Alter, To Say Goodbye and Don’t You Let Me Go and co-produced The Heiresses, My Friend From The Park, History of Fear, Loveling, Monos I Woke Up With a Dream, Shipwrecks, The Last and Our Part of the World.