Of Memories and Debris

(De memoria y escombros)

Rodrigo Michelangeli / France, Venezuela, Canada / 2020 / 17 min
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  • La Guarimba International Film Festival

  • Camden International Film Festival

  • Indy Shorts International Film Festival

  • BOGOSHORTS Bogotá Int'l Film Festival

  • Festival del Cine Venezolano

  • London Migration Film Festival

  • ZINEBI Bilbao

  • Faito Doc Festival

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Spanish with English subtitles

With Luis Rivas Lazzazabal, Maritza Sosa, Noemi Penaloza

USE CODE “DEBRIS” AT CHECKOUT FOR A SPECIAL 40% DISCOUNT FOR MID-LENGTH FILMS.

A personal portrait of the director’s grandfather Opa, and his wife’s grandfather Ababo, who remained in Venezuela after most of their family emigrated due to the economic crisis and violence in the country.

Opa lives with his wife Oma, who has been suffering from Alzheimer’s for the past ten years, as he cares for her through her final days.

Ababo scrapes the sewers of his abandoned gold processing factory to accumulate gold remnants and afford a trip to Canada. His goal is to attend his granddaughter’s wedding.

An intimate character diptych, Of Memory And Debris tells the story of an unseen generation — the grandparents left behind by the largest exodus in Latin America’s recent history.

About the Director
Rodrigo Michelangeli is a Canadian-Venezuelan filmmaker based in Toronto. He is the co-writer, cinematographer, and producer of the feature film La Soledad (Jorge Thielen Armand, 2016), which premiered at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival, and helmed the same roles in his sophomore feature La Fortaleza (Jorge Thielen Armand, 2020) which premiered in the Tiger Competition at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam.

Rodrigo obtained a BFA in Film Production from Toronto’s York University. As a Cinematographer he has worked on several projects including the hybrid documentary Leftover, which won the 2014 Toronto Film Critics Association Award; Rodrigo also produced Mo Scarpelli’s third feature film El Father Plays Himself which premiered in Visions du Réel 2020, and won its Jury Special Mention.

He’s an alumnus of RIDM’s Talent Lab, Hot Docs Accelerators Program, Venice Biennale College, BAL, and the Berlinale Talents Camera Studio.

He founded La Faena Films with Jorge Thielen Armand.

Notes on Film

“I made this film out of necessity. I decided to go back to Venezuela after seven years abroad to rescue some of the time that was stolen from me and my loved ones. Seven million Venezuelans have left the country in the last ten years and many of us had to leave our elders behind. To film them forced me to spend calm periods of time with them while trying to understand how they dealt with solitude, illness, and economic stress.

I will always cherish these images because even if they show a specific reality, they also make us think about how we deal with our parents and grandparents as they grow older and pass. Leaving home during a crisis is never easy. For me, when going back is an option, making films and immortalizing becomes an innegable duty.

I hope whoever watches Of Memory and Debris feels the urge to visit their family and make the best of their time together.”

– Rodrigo Michelangeli, Director

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