Screened Out – Memories of a Penitent Heart

The Florida Film Festival closes out its 25th-anniversary season this weekend. Maitland’s Enzian Theater and Winter Park’s Regal Cinemas are still showing many indie and art-house films. Among them are Memories of a Penitent Heart and Pink Boy. These are two Florida-based documentaries with decidedly LGBT approaches.

More information and tickets are available at Florida.FilmFestival.com.

Cecilia Aldarondo plumbs her family's most painful secrets in Memories of a Penitent Heart.
Cecilia Aldarondo plumbs her family’s most painful secrets in Memories of a Penitent Heart.

Memories of a Penitent Heart
Documentary Feature
Sun. April 17, 1-2:45PM at Enzian Theater, Maitland

The long Hallmark-style title is a strong indicator. This documentary is an emotional rollercoaster. Memories presents an ugly, complicated story.

Cecilia Aldorondo is a young Puerto Rican filmmaker with family living in Orlando, Florida. She tries to uncover what happened to her uncle Miguel (or Michael) in 1991, before he succumbed to AIDS. Cecelia knows that her family had strong Catholic and Puerto Rican influences.

She also knows Miguel had a long-term partner, Robert. Robert backed off as his lover was dying. Robert showed up once at the funeral and then disappeared, never to be heard from again. The family wasn’t too supportive of Miguel’s/Michael’s homosexuality, so 25 years of silence and secrecy aren’t surprising.

Though the men were together for decades, the family never found out Robert’s last name.

Miguel also being called Michael is a good indication that the man led two lives – one for his family, and other in his NYC community.

Aldarondo goes on a quest for the truth. She searches online and starts a Kickstarter campaign to fund her film. This leads her to Robert. The main thrusts of this film are who her uncle was, who Robert was, how this affected her family, and who her uncle’s lover is now.

“My whole family is going to be thrilled to hear about finding you, including my mother,” Aldarondo responds.

“I find that hard to believe,” Robert responds. “She was so nasty to me.”

It’s not difficult to imagine why Aldarondo was stunned into silence.

Robert continued: “I was always the outcast, you know. I was the devil. I was the person who made him gay. He was my best friend… And when he died, it punched a hole in my heart.”

The film continues to provide one small but shocking revelation after another. Aldarondo uses her family’s and Robert’s most painful, troubling times as a basis for her story. (All documentarians do this; it’s a distinct feature here). By plumbing these mysteries, Memories represents a familiar but aching part of many families’ histories, with an Orlando connection.

pink boy
Pink Boy’s Jeffrey is raised in conservative Florida by an accepting family.

Pink Boy
Documentary Short

This Florida-based documentary is an interesting counter to Memories of a Penitent Heart. (It plays before other film.) Pink Boy shows how families navigate relations with their LGBT members now.

Six-year-old Jeffrey lives in rural, conservative Florida. It helps that his great-aunt – his guardian – is a lesbian. Jeffrey loves cross-dressing. He’s decided he wants to be a princess for Halloween. His great-aunt fears for the boy, but she also adores and wants to support him.

This short is somewhat lacking in real conflict. Pink Boy does find the free spirits and supportive souls hidden within the Florida backwater that may be able to help Jeffrey’s dreams come true.

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