The Rest I Make Up
Directed by Michelle Memran
USA | 2018 | Documentary | 75 min
Film Source: Women Make Movies
Sponsor: Barbara Zucker
*Followed by Q&A with the director
Also showing Sunday, October 21 at 7:15PM
This documentary about María Irene Fornés, the groundbreaking playwright, director and teacher, is both a biography and a personal film of a young filmmaker learning from Fornés how to be an artist. First-time director Michelle Memran befriends and follows Fornés, looking for a mentor. Filmed over multiple years, we see the relationship transform from mentor/mentee to true friendship. Through this friendship we become privy to her artistic life in New York City, her family in Cuba and her loves — including Susan Sontag, whom she calls “the love of my life.” When Fornés begins to show signs of Alzheimer’s, the relationship shifts again, but not as expected. It is a sensitive representation of dementia — seen not as the loss of intellect, but as the loss of memory and inhibition, while the creative spark and lust for life remain. The film is a celebration of Fornés, friendship and the undying artistic spirit. ~ JS
Read the review by Richard Brody of the New Yorker HERE