Gilda is a middle aged woman, mother and wife. One day she realizes she’s having problems setting the table. These are her first symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Through found footage and poetic visions, the stages of her illness become a stream of images on the breach of oblivion.

Short documentary / Experimental, 12′ – 2021

Directed by Fabio Marin, Giuseppe Petruzzellis
Produced by APLYSIA
With: Gilda Zanin, Vittoria Callegaro, Nicoletta Martinisi, Gianni Marin, Martina Marin, Enrico Marin, Fabio Marin
Narrator Carola Minincleri Colussi
Soundtrack di Wang Fan, Yaprak Kurtsal
Cinematography Francesco Saverio Valentino, Giuseppe Petruzzellis
Mix: Davide Saggioro
Distribution: Aplysia, Tersite, ZaLab View

Behind the images of Forget me not lies a personal, profound and courageous story. Fabio Marin set out to restore voice and dignity to his mother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s and passed away in 2018. Together with Giuseppe Petruzzellis he made a film that tells the story of the illness from Gilda’s point of view. Every frame is a plunge into her dreamlike world, where memory unravels like a broken tape, yet love remains the only fixed point.

Awards 
Visioni dal Mondo (Milano, Italia – 2021) – Special Mention
Mescalito Biopic Fest (Roma, Italia – 2021) – Best short
Prisma Film Festival (2021) – Best editing
Verona International Film Festival (2022) – Best Experimental short

Segni della Notte (2021) – Best Italian short
Super Shorts Los Angeles (2022) – Best underground short
DOC.LONDON (2023) – Best Experimental documentary

The following is the jury statement from the youth jury, composed of film students, which awarded the special mention in the Italian Short Films category at the Visioni dal Mondo festival (Milan): “The film succeeded, through the skilled use of archival material and poetic images of strong visual and symbolic impact, in conveying both the disorientation of the patient and the pain — and therefore the love — of the family members who accompany them on this journey. All of this without rhetoric or sentimentality.”

Festivals
MakeDox (Skopje, Macedonia)
Minikino Film Week – Bali International Film Festival (Bali, Indonesia)
Visioni dal Mondo (Milan, Italy)
Sedicicorto Forlì International Film Festival (Forlì, Italy)
Prisma Film Festival (Rome, Italy)
The Pigeon International Film Festival (Isafjorður, Island)

Mescalito Biopic Fest (Rome, Italy)
Visioni Italiane (Bologna, Italy)
Verona International Film Festival (Verona, Italy)
Segni della Notte (Urbino, Italy)
Super Shorts Los Angeles (Los Angeles, USA)
DOC.LONDON (London, UK)

From World Alzheimer’s Day, 21 September 2024, Forget me not has been made freely available on the ZaLab View platform. ZaLab View.