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(Chicago Film Festival photo)

Recommended

In “Time Passages,” film documentarian Kyle Henry takes us through a journey of life and death as he works to come to terms with his mother Elaine’s memory loss and make sense of their relationship.

Henry tells us his mother was an avid scrapbooker who carefully and thoughtfully arranged family memories into creative visually interesting photo albums. Now, the filmmaker is doing with audio and visual media what his mother did for years with paper and glue. He is trying to carefully arrange her fading memories along with his own into a neat package for safe keeping and for the pleasure of future generations.

An accomplished filmmaker, Henry utilizes a number of visual techniques together with performance art to tell his story. For example, the use of wooden peg dolls with their doll house and car was used very effectively to provide a visual context for recreated discussions with his mother.

We learn that Elaine was an art teacher and Kyle uses a number of artistic film devices to add visual interest. I personally loved where he projected images of his mother’s face onto his own.

I was drawn to this film as part of my review coverage of the 60^th Annual Chicago Film Festival. I look for entries that have a Chicago aspect to them and Kyle Henry is a filmmaker currently residing in Chicago. That fact along with a few exterior shots in what I believe to be Rogers Park is the extent of the Chicago connection to Time Passages.

The film does have a wider connection with those of us who have cared for elderly parents and family members as well as those of us who have witnessed a loved one slip slowly into some state of dementia. It may also resonate with those who are beginning to see signs of “old age” within themselves or others around them or who have fears of memory loss.

After all, our memories, as manifestations of our experiences, represent the sum total of who we are. In this way Henry is expressing whether it is necessary for those memories to inhabit a human body in order to be useful or can they have value in another form. That form could be his mother’s physical albums or this documentary film.

The production is as much about the documentarian as it is about his mother, with a certain self-indulgent quality that begs the question as to whether this labor is for his own benefit or for the benefit of the viewer. Is this a film about Henry’s cathartic attempt to reconcile his relationship with his mother or is it a film about us witnessing his mother’s memory loss? I’m certain that it is both and this observation brings me to the one criticism I have of this effort.

I have a favorite expression, “Pick a horse and ride it.” Henry, like many creative people, tries to cram too many good ideas into this one small parcel. No doubt the film is about the relationship of his mother and him, sharing her journey into memory loss.

However, Henry sidetracks into the COVID pandemic, which indeed interjected itself unexpectedly into the plot line and has to be dealt with. But I feel his expansion of the topic had a tendency to pull our attention away from the central story.

The same is true with his subplot of the influence of Kodak on the life of Mid-century Americans, which I love but likewise seems an intruder in this film. I would like to have seen the Kodak segments cut and that idea developed separately in another project.

Looking at other people’s lives is always interesting. We can’t help but to compare our experiences to theirs perhaps in a quest to see if we ourselves are “normal.” Are they the outliers, or are we? But this boarders on being simply a voyeuristic activity. I’m trying to ask myself what is the message and what am I supposed to take away from this film other than a peek into this mother and son relationship?

The film’s overall vibe was a bit oppressive. Elaine was a singer but this production was kind of one note. I wanted a little more rise and fall. We know early on that mom is going to die in the end so that is not so much a climax as it is a race toward the inevitable.

The sidetracks mentioned above were an attempt to break us out of our funk but alas were ineffective. The film needed more of an arc. So lacking that, it was better as a showcase of Henry’s visual storytelling technical abilities and less about the ability to use this experience as a way to speak to a wider audience with a more universal message.

In the end I can say I appreciate this effort and am glad that Henry made “Time Passage”, for the purpose of preserving and sharing some memories and insight into his mother’s life and his.

For those of us who may be going through or have had similar shared experiences of memory loss and eldercare it has value by demonstrating that you’re not alone in your struggle. It is possible that the raw nature of the content can be triggering for those who may have had a similar recent experience that they found traumatic. It may be a wake-up call for some who are not currently aware of how fleeting life can be. In fact, Kyle shares a recording of Elaine telling us basically to enjoy life.

I appreciated a number of visual elements and performance art segments that showcased Kyle Henry’s considerable talents. However, I think “Time Passages” will have appeal to a niche audience but falls short in regard to offering a single larger message to a wider audience.

An 86-minute documentary, it is being screened as part of the 60^th Chicago International Film Festival October 16-27, 2024. 

Most of the film festival movies are shown only once or twice so this review is aimed at informing you in the hope that you will look for subsequent screenings at other locations in the future or that it might encourage you to consider attending the Chicago Film Festival yourself next year or beyond.

For festival information visit ChicagoFilmFestival.com. For film information visit http://amonumentforidabfilm.com.

 Reno Lovison