Christiane Burkhard

Twenty years ago, director Christiane Burkhard’s parents died in a plane crash. Now she has made a documentary, in collaboration with her sister, about remembering and coming to terms with the facts. First, she looks for accounts in the former homes and from family and friends of the couple. She also has a large number of old Super-8 recordings. Her mother was an enthusiastic amateur filmmaker, who captured all the major family events on film. Together with her sister, Burkhard watches the footage of the smiling faces of her parents. Making this documentary becomes a self-conceived ritual that should help her bid farewell to an unreal and unaccepted past. The subdued tone suits the difficulties all those involved have talking about the event, even after twenty years.

This documentary follows, for over a year, the story of Aleida Gallangos, a 32-year-old Mexican woman who got to know her true identity only four years before. Her parents were disappeared in 1975 during the so called Dirty War in Mexico. She and her older brother were adopted by different families and lost track of each other during almost 30 years. Since she found out about her past, Aleida has dedicated her time to recon- struct her family history and to look for her brother. The documentary shows, in an intimate way, an approach to the process of the quest for her brother as well as of the unfolding of their relationship after their unexpected encounter in Washington, D.C. The documentary gives a face and a voice to one of the numerous cases of people who disappeared in Mexico during the seventies.