For my short film, I chose to focus on Memo.

Memo is based around an older french man who lives alone—presumably because his wife passed away, and his daughter moved out—and has sticky notes posted all around his house with little reminders. As the film progresses, the person watching can understand that the older man has Alzheimer’s and is struggling to live with it.

From what I can tell, one of the signifiers is the sticky notes that seemingly cover every inch of his house

These sticky notes signify his loss of perspective, and the other signifier—the erasing of words and features—represents the mind fog that comes along with Alzheimer’s disease. They relate to one another because they both describe and demonstrate the perspective and the struggle of someone with this disease.

The spatial relationship is interesting because it shows how the sticky-notes, the little reminders, combat the brain fog because towards the end, when the fog starts to cover the area around his fridge, he puts the sticky note back and it forces the brain fog to go away.

I think that creating this story and producing it in film makes it specifically powerful because it allows for visuals, it changes the meaning because in writing, it leaves more up for interpretation. The film allowed for the person watching to be able to visually see the main points.

This indirectly brings in the “absent Black Father” stereotype by showing how strong the bond between the older man and his daughter is. It shows her care for her father and how they continue to care for each other despite the harrowing health journey they;re trying to manage.

Intertextuality is easily observed because this film can remind people of medical texts covering issues with memory, or other texts written by black others that describe the stereotypes strongly nudged at throughout the short film.

The scene in the grocery store where he started to deal with mind fog and got so overwhelmed he had to run out stood out to me especially. It stood out to me because it reminds me of my grandma who has slight dementia. I tend to comfort her the same way that the daughter comforted her father. Overall this film covers the harrowing experience that is Alzhiemer’s, and brings in other important themes.