A free screening of the documentary “Memories of a Penitent Heart” will be shown at 7 p.m. on Dec. 3 in Ellig Classroom (N120 CPHB) in honor of World AIDS Day. A panel discussion will follow the film and light refreshments will be provided.

The event is hosted by the Health Equity Advancement Lab (HEAL) in collaboration with the University of Iowa Libraries and the LGBTQ Advocates student group.

ABOUT THE FILM

Combining a wealth of recently discovered home movies, video, and written documents with artfully shot contemporary interviews and vérité footage, Memories of a Penitent Heart is a documentary that cracks open a Pandora’s box of unresolved family drama. Originating from filmmaker Cecilia Aldarondo’s suspicion that there was something ugly in her family’s past, the film charts her excavation of the buried family conflict around her uncle Miguel’s death, and her search for Miguel’s partner Robert a generation later.

After two years of dead ends, Robert turns up: but he’s not the same man. He’s reinvented himself as Father Aquin, a Franciscan monk with twenty-five years of pent-up grief and bitterness. For the first time, a member of Miguel’s family wants to hear Aquin’s side of the story—but is it too little, too late? This is a story about the mistakes of the past and the second chances of the present.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa–sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact Rebecca Bucklin in advance at 3193844025 or rebecca-bucklin@uiowa.edu