A toast to celebrate The Roberto Guerra Documentary Fund and first grantee Cecilia Aldarondo
Including a sneak preview of clips from Aldarondo’s awarded and long-awaited film Memories of a Penitent Heart. In this personal documentary about family, faith, and the painful costs of prejudice, Aldarondo revisits her family history. Twenty-five years after her uncle Miguel died of AIDS, she tracks down his gay lover and cracks closed a Pandora’s box of unresolved family drama.
The Roberto Guerra Documentary Fund was launched in the fall of 2014 during the 5th Contemporary Peruvian Film Showcase. Originally from Peru, filmmaker Roberto Guerra came to New York as a young, aspiring filmmaker in the late 60s to meet the cinema verité pioneers. From then on he was inspired to create a number of films while living in New York and Europe. He continued to shoot and produce throughout the last year of his life. His spirit and equanimity in the face of his sudden cancer diagnosis was inspirational. He died in January 2014.
The Fund aims to honor Roberto Guerra’s life and legacy in the field by supporting and encouraging an emerging Latin-American or US-based Latino filmmaker living in New York in the creation of his or her documentary work. Media artist Kathy Brew, Roberto Guerra’s long-time collaborator and wife, established the Fund in partnership with UnionDocs as the non-profit administrator. To date, the fund has raised almost $15,000. A list of supporters can be found here.
A select group of people in the field were invited to nominate potential candidates and then a selection panel convened on September 11th. Cecilia Aldarondo will receive $ 2,500 to support the completion of her first feature-length documentary, Memories of a Penitent Heart. The film is currently in post-production and the grant funds will be used towards costs of an original music score for the film.
Cecilia Aldarondo’s personal documentary Memories of a Penitent Heart has been supported by grants and fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, the Sundance Institute, The Time Warner Foundation, Firelight Media, The Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation, and The National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP). In 2015, Memories of a Penitent Heart was selected for IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Lab as well as Sundance Institute’s Edit and Story Lab. That same year, Aldarondo was selected as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.”
The fund is still closed for donations. Go to Roberto Guerra Documentary Fund to read more or to make your contribution.
Wine provided by:
Beer provided by:
Pisco provided by:
Food provided by:
Additional support by:
Trade Commission of Peru in New York
