A Photographic Memory

It’s a film that captures the unsettling sensation of reaching middle age, knowing the length of the road ahead is uncertain but certainly shorter than it’s ever been, and not being able to see past the age your parent was upon death.

Pre-ordained as Seed’s conclusion might feel, it’s plenty affecting to watch her get there.

Beyond the wealth of resources at her disposal, it’s the consistently meta and thematically relevant formal ingenuity Seed shrewdly deploys that make her debut a sumptuous piece of nonfiction.

Seed’s elusive film is a haunting portrait—nimble in execution and startling in its poignancy—that introduces her mother to a new generation.

Few daughters who lose mothers at a young age would have such a wealth of fascinating written, audio, visual material and the diligence to uncover, digitize, and edit together such a touching and insightful tribute to fill in the gaps of personal memory.

The result is a haunting and poetic film about the ties that bind, a loving portrait of a mother she never knew, and an insightful examination of the limitations places on creative women in the 20th century.

Her story is marvelous, and her daughter’s earnest exploration and emotional tribute add up to a wonderful way of sharing that story.

A poignant and illuminating journey.

A Photographic Memory is an intimate film, replete with memories of a woman who was an intrepid journalist, capable documentary photographer and fine essayist.

If this film leaves us wanting to know about the filmmaker and her subject, there must be solace in how its bittersweet lack of resolution mirrors anyone who attempts to make sense of loss.