In honor of AAPI Heritage Month, SDFC’s Perspective Film Series: An Elegy to Forgetting, presented by AARP, co-presented by SHARP, and in partnership with the San Diego Central Library happened on May 2, 2023. Kristoffer Brugada’s “An Elegy to Forgetting,” a moving documentary about his own father’s painful experience battling Alzheimer’s disease was screened at 1:00 PM, followed by a panel discussion at 3:00 PM at the Neil Morgan Auditorium of the San Diego Central Library.
Elehiya sa Paglimot (An Elegy to Forgetting) documents a filmmaker’s experience with his father’s death due to Alzheimer’s disease. Taken from a personal perspective, the filmmaker gives a first-hand look at how his family dealt with his father’s worsening Alzheimer’s disease and eventual death, leading him to realizations about memory, familial relationships, and his own mortality. The film delves into the importance of memories in the human experience – how the ability to remember makes us feel alive, how its power can hold us, and how memory gives us what we need to feel and be human.
At the panel discussion titled “The Many Dimensions of Caregiving & Alzheimer’s Disease”, our guest panelists who are experts in the field discussed the healing powers of storytelling within our families and our community. Guest panelists include Clytie Causing (Co-director of Community Engagement & Action at Pilipino Workers Center in Los Angeles), Emily Tran (President and Founder of Intergenerational Gerontology Alliance), Janet Hamada (Executive Director, Alzheimer’s Association, San Diego/Imperial County), and Benito Bautista (Executive Director of San Diego Filipino Cinema), moderated by State President of AARP-California Joe Garbanzos.
