Ron, the filmmaker’s father, has a brain injury that affects his ability to situate himself and retain memories. Upon realising that her father no longer recognises her, the director decides to turn her father’s notebooks into a film that plunges us into the complexities of memory and the brain, full of creativity, humour and tenderness.
The director’s father, Ron, is suffering from a brain injury that has impaired his ability to find his bearings or remember events. To keep track of his life, he writes in notebooks. When Karina Beumer realises that her father no longer recognises her, and that his illness seems to be erasing their relationship, she decides to make a film based on his writings and her own memories. In (...), father and daughter create an artistic universe together, blending Ron's writings and drawings with his daughter's sets and papier-mâché characters. At the heart of the film is a wholesome and collaborative creation process that brings to life this father-daughter reunion, made possible by the art of cinema. When the daughter asks her father what they will do once they have finished making the film, Ron responds: “another film!” Using a non-linear narrative, the film takes us on a humorous and tender journey through the labyrinth of memory and the brain, while confronting us with existential questions. Without memory, can we still have an identity and be ourselves?
Karina Beumer
Karina Beumer grew up in a small Dutch village with a huge amusement park. She is the first of two children. She went to art school because she thought she was a reincarnation of Vincent van Gogh. She obtained her Masters in Visual Arts in Antwerp and has continued to work in art. Themes in her work are: the right to exist, megalomania, competition, representation versus original, imitation, productivity and authorship. In 2022 she made a film about her father’s amnesia in which she tried to write herself back into his head.
Karina Beumer’s interactive artistic practice is brought to life by being in conversation with — or captivated by — something or someone else. Beumer searches for an absurd and surreal relationship between the inside of the head (thoughts, miscommunication) and the physical world (language, networks). In a dream-like universe she connects banal issues with personal fantasies, using strategies from existing structures such as pop songs, blockbusters and live action role playing.
","author_name":"Martin Lennon"}