Augusto Góngora and Paulina Urrutia had been together for 25 years when 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 own 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.
Winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and a 2024 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature, The Eternal Memory has been praised by the likes of the New York Times, the Guardian, Variety, and the Hollywood Reporter. For more about the film, check out Paulina’s interview with the Alzheimer’s Association, an onstage conversation she did at the Lincoln Center, and director Maite Alberdi’s interview on the Daily Show.
You can see The Eternal Memory at IU Cinema this Friday and Saturday!
“It’s a striking and intimate piece of cinema, a heartrending tale of living with and battling neurological disorders, the love necessary to endure it, and the anguished dolor of remembrance.” — Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist
The Eternal Memory will be playing at IU Cinema on September 13 at 7pm and September 14 at 7pm as part of the New Americas Cinema series.