I'M STILL HERE

Johnny (56) and Julia (87) only have each other. Despite his mental disequilibrium, he takes deep care of his mother, who is facing loss of memory. "I'm still here" explores the unconditional relationship between a mother and her son, enduring and transcending time and adversity.

TANA GILBERT

 

Director of Film and Television at the University of Chile. Director of outstanding documentary short films: "Rest, Zulema" (2013) awarded and exhibited at national and international festivals and available on the web DOC Alliance Films; and "I'm still here" selected in Hot Docs, Chicago IFF, Seminci. among others. She works at the Cultural Corporation of Documentalists Chiledoc and is a professor of documentary film courses at universities. She is developing her first feature film with Errante Producciones, on of the most important production companies of documentary in Latin America.

• Hot Docs, Canada 2017 

• Camden International Film Festival, USA 2017

• Chicago International Film festival, USA 2017

• Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid, Spain 2017

• Santiago International Film Festival, Chile 2017

• Atlantidoc — Special Jury Prize, Uruguay 2017
• Antofadocs — Special Jury Prize, Chili 2017 
• Miradas Doc, Spain 2018

This film is born from a personal experience and point of view. The link I have to mental illness is related to Julia, with Alzheimer's, and Johnny, with schizophrenia, she's my grandmother and he's my uncle. Thanks to the privileged access I was able to explore their relationship and immerse myself in their coexistence, which allowed me to portray them in a closer manner, avoiding the prejudice of how mental illness is represented. 

The decision about the space not appearing is to reaffirm that they are all they have, how important are their bodies that coexist and their minds that go away somewhere. "I'm still here" talks about love, about how we need to have the other one closer, to take care of it and take care of us. Such a strong love that is still there regardless of what happens. 

This short film invites the viewer to recognize and reflect through this particular insight, provoking the identification with another and possibly with ourselves.

DOKer 2018 — Short Competition