By Jeffrey Sipe and Nina Rodriguez
In Andrea Martínez Crowther’s hybrid Birdwatching “Observar las Aves,” we follow Lena Daerna, a renowned writer and artist, who is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and decides to document the process of losing her memory in a movie. Knowing that the disease will eventually prevent her from finishing the film, Lena asks for the help of documentary filmmaker, Andrea, whose mother had been diagnosed with the same disease, and became terribly afraid that it would also happen to her. Together, the two women embark on a trip down memory lane and weave an ode to the beautiful ephemerality of life.
The film-within-a-film is a documentary, but the narrative is really employed here to help the characters obtain a closer look at this delicate subject that an objective documentary would have ever allowed.
Andrea is played by the film’s director, who takes credit for the script and cinematography along with the personal pain and fears of her own experience which she strives to overcome by making this film. Cinema becomes the guardian of our most precious memories, “I had no intention of acting, but I understood it was necessary and the story just called for it,” Martinez Crowther explains.
This is the third feature film for Martínez Crowther, who debuted in “Cosas Insignificantes,” produced by Guillermo del Toro’s Tequila Gang in 2008 and received a wide release in theatres across the country. The filmmaker then turned to telling an already highly intimate family history in the documentary “Ciclo” featuring her dad and uncle as protagonists, while “Observar las Aves” now can be seen as a tribute to the story of her mom.
The director’s playful approach allows for an impressive, authentic, and tender portrait of a life with Alzheimer to emerge with a stellar protagonist performance by artist Bea Aaronson. Like Andrea’s mother, Aaronson also came to Mexico as a foreigner. As the film is spoken in three languages, it helps to illustrate the process of memory loss by referring to different stages of her life.
While the film chronicles the growing friendship between the two lively women getting to know each other and sharing memories, we are reminded that this is a farewell letter before oblivion as the tragedy unfolds: Lena starts becoming less and less lucid and Andrea has to drop the camera more than once to come to her aid.
Above all tragedy though, in the end “Observar las Aves” is more than a film about a disease. It sketches a poetic portrait of the road to oblivion that turns into a celebration of life and memories in their ephemerality along with the nostalgia of cinema itself.
Parts of the film were shot in San Miguel with local Bea Aaronson starring as protagonist. The film premiered at the Cabos Film Festival where it received the Audience Award and will be presented by the filmmaker Andrea Martínez Crowther during a free outdoor screening on February 21 at Compartimento Cinematografico, Calzada de la Estación 59, at 7pm.
