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Short synopsis: Three vulnerable senior citizens struggle to survive in Mexico City.
THE PROJECT
“The Memory of Oblivion” is a reflexive and observational documentary about the present and the past of three vulnerable senior citizens who struggle to survive in one of the biggest and most populated cities in the planet: Mexico City.
“Clavitos”, an eighty-one years-old homeless clown, tries to save money to leave the streets and buy a new clown suit to keep working in his profession.
Carmelita, an eighty years old domestic worker with ailing knees, looks for a way to keep earning money for family support after she realizes that she can’t keep cleaning houses anymore.
Javier, an old man with a hip prosthesis, traverses the streets of Mexico City’s downtown to collect the garbage while he tells the story of his profession and his complex family situation.
TOPIC
Alrededor del 82% de los adultos mayores que viven en México sufren de pobreza alimentaria o económica. Como botón de muestra de las precarias condiciones de vida que enfrentan las personas adultas mayores en el país, me interesa producir un documental que reflexione sobre su rol en la sociedad contemporánea y sobre la constante transformación de los valores y las creencias a través de las distintas generaciones.
Around 82% of the senior citizens who live in Mexico suffer of economic or food poverty. As an example of the precarious living conditions that most of the senior citizens face in the country, I’m interested in producing a documentary that reflects about their role in contemporary society, and about the constant transformation of the values and beliefs through different generations.
“La memoria del olvido” retrata al individuo “común” enfrentado a los rigores de la economía global. La capacidad de resiliencia de la mayor parte de las personas adultas mayores del país es un valioso ejemplo de esperanza por alcanzar el bienestar.
“The Memory of Oblivion” portrays the “common” individual faced to the harshness of global economy. The capacity of being resilient of the majority of the senior citizens of the country is a valuable example of hope to reach welfare.
El documental pretende contribuir a dignificar a las personas adultas mayores al utilizar canales alternativos de comunicación que propicien la empatía, la inclusión y el valor de la memoria del sujeto “común”. En un esfuerzo por contribuir a la reflexión sobre el importante rol social que deberían desempeñar los ancianos, como sucedía en las culturas “tradicionales” y antiguas, “La memoria del olvido” nos motivará a pensar sobre la alteridad, la resiliencia, la pobreza y la exclusión social. Desde esta mirada es que se pretende fortalecer las bases para el desarrollo de una sociedad inclusiva, igualitaria y plural.
The documentary pretends to contribute to dignify senior citizens by using alternative channels of communication that foster empathy, inclusion and the value of the memory of the “common” subject. In an effort to contribute to the reflection about the important social role that senior citizens should have, as it happened in “traditional” and ancient cultures, “The Memory of Oblivion” will encourage us to think about otherness, resilience, poverty and social exclusion. It’s through this regard that I pretend to strengthen the basis for the development of a more inclusive, egalitarian and plural society.
ARTISTIC APPROACH AND AUDIOVISUAL STYLE
The project has a reflexive and observational approach and an intimate tone. By combining diverse temporalities, techniques, styles, formats, textures, screen sizes and sources of materials, “The Memory of Oblivion” will foster artistic experimentation to think about memory and experience as elements that essentially conform us as subjects, determining our past, our present and our future.
By reconstructing and reinterpreting some meaningful events of the past of the characters combining stock footage, found footage, photographs, in-depth interviews and representative objects, we pretend to privilege their voice, their experiences and their memories. Additionally, a portrait of their everyday life will reveal their actual living conditions.