An exploration of Anna, an aging woman, as she suffers from a mind-altering disease. This is director and writer Chris Esper’s Distant Memories.
Without our ‘memory’ who are we? As writer and director of Distant Memories, a short 10-minute film, Chris Esper tries to answer this question by presenting us with a quietly powerful look at Alzheimer’s disease. Without being melodramatic or showy, Esper pulls us into a surreal, dreamlike experience of a woman whose memories are slowly slipping away. This woman is Anna, and she is played powerfully by Sissy O’Hara.
Anna doesn’t just suffer from Alzheimer’s, she also has a lot of memories left that are becoming more and more distant and broken. The opening shot shows us Anna wandering around a room that represents her mind, filled with the objects and items from her life. As the short continues, these items pull Anna back into her story, where the edges between what is remembered and what is forgotten overlap.
What makes Distant Memories work well is its sensitivity, with Esper wisely avoiding the clichés of films about dementia where the disease is treated as the villain. Instead, he gives us Anna’s subconscious. The visuals are evocative with dusty shelves, flickering projectors, and long-forgotten VCRs evoking a sense of nostalgia.
The memories give us versions of Anna from different points in her life such as her and her husband’s first romantic trip without the children, contrasted with more painful memories of Anna’s later life when she doesn’t recognize her children at all. Young Anna is seen in flashbacks of happier times like when her husband proposes, and these moments are brief yet meaningful, but all are underscored by a growing sense of loss.
The direction is understated but confident as Esper allows the images to speak for themselves. The choice to use different media such as film reels, VHS tapes, and other forms of old technology is a clever metaphor for how we store and retrieve memories. Some are crisp and vivid, others are grainy, fragmented, or worn out. The transitions between these mediums heighten the sense that we are moving through time along with Anna.
O’Hara’s performance as elderly Anna is the beating heart of the film. Her expressions, often wordless, convey the confusion, sadness, and short-lived joy that come with moments of recognition. It is a performance that could easily have veered into melodrama but never does.
Distant Memories manages to accomplish a lot in its short runtime. Becoming a film that reflects on the ability to remember and the ways in which it shapes our lives. Esper has crafted a deeply personal work that will no doubt connect with everyone on both an emotional and universal level. It is a film that doesn’t hammer its message home looking for awards, critical acclaim, or success. Instead, it invites the audience in to sit and talk with its subject and in doing so gives everyone the chance to reflect and feel empathy. It’s when it is at its most quiet that Distant Memories, finds its greatest power.
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