Doctor Zhivago,Casablanca,Amour.
Over the decades, cinema has produced some fictional love stories of enduring beauty and resonance.
They spent many joyous years together before Augusto was diagnosed, in 2014, with Alzheimers.
Paulina Urrutia and Augusto GóngoraCourtesy of MTV Documentary Films
Smiling, he introduces himself to his wife.
Im Augusto Gongora, he says.
And who are you?
Augusto Góngora and his wife Paulina Urrutia Fernández watch an eclipse through protective shades.MTV Documentary Films
Patiently, lovingly, she replies her name is Pauli.
Watch on Deadline
Urrutia recorded the moment on a camera affixed to a tripod.
She shot like half of the film, Alberdi tells Deadline.
And the first scene that I received, its the first scene of the film.
It was an intimacy that only they can shoot.
When Gongora was first diagnosed, the couple shared the news publicly.
I was so moved.
Paulina didnt want do it.
She was like, No, I dont want to expose this anymore, Alberdi says.
A record should exist.
It was a collective, ideal situation for a caregiver not to have to isolate their [loved-one].
Gongora displays warmth, humanity and sense of humor despite his condition.
Im going to fight to the end, he declares.
His rate of cognitive decline accelerated 12-fold, Paulina and her husbands doctor concluded.
As his disease worsened, Augusto would become anxious and confused more often.
In moments of distress, he pleads, Help me!
Another time, he demands of his wife, Who are you?
Im Pauli, she says gently.
No, youre not!
Somehow, the spell of confusion lifts, and he attempts to lovingly comfort her and dispelherfears.
Its a family issue, Alberdi notes.
In the midst of the festival it was acquired byMTV Documentary Films.
I think in the middle of the year.
In the film, Paulina reads from his words: Without memory, we dont know who we are.
Without memory, we wander, confused, not knowing where to go.
Without memory, there is no identity.
Numbers and statistics arent enough.
I think Chileans also need to rebuild our emotional memory.
And that for me was like an eternal memory, another understanding of memory.
