Memories of a Penitent Heart

Memories of a Penitent Heart is an American documentary film, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2016. Written and directed by Cecilia Aldarondo, the film centres on her attempts to find out more about the life and death of her uncle Miguel Dieppa, an aspiring actor and playwright who died of AIDS when she was just six years old and had only ever met him once.

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• thirdhorizonff 16 memories of a penitent heart trailer
• Short cuts cecilia aldarondo on her highly personal doc memories of a penitent heart
• References

The film had its genesis when Aldarondo received some old family home movies, including footage of Dieppa, from her mother. Knowing that her uncle's partner's name was Robert but not knowing his last name, she eventually succeeds in tracking him down through the film's Kickstarter campaign — he is now a Roman Catholic priest going by the name of Father Aquin.

Through interviews with him, other friends who knew them and her own family, she uncovers the complicated emotional truth of his life and death, in particular the cruelties inflicted on both Miguel and Robert by her grandmother and mother because of their homosexuality. In the process, she also learns the explosive truth that Miguel had once run into his father in a gay bar, leading her in turn to the discovery that after her grandmother's death, her grandfather also spent some time in a clandestine same-sex relationship.

The film is slated to air on PBS's documentary series POV in 2017.