Filmmaker talking to NYC congregations about family acceptance,

13. May, 2014 Comments Off on Filmmaker talking to NYC congregations about family acceptance,

A new documentary to look=
for, hopefully later this year, film is not complete yet
http://penitentheart.com/ &n=
bsp; — CF

~~~~

May 9, 2014

Cecilia Aldarondo, the fi=
lmmaker behindMemories of a Penitent
Heart, will be giving work-in-progress talks about the film at sev=
eral congregations around New York City. The film tackles themes of family =
acceptance, HIV/AIDS, Latino family culture, and Roman Catholic teaching on=
being gay.

In 1987, Miguel Dieppa re=
pented of his homosexuality as he lay dying in a New York City hospital. Af=
ter making history as the world’s first-ever Puerto Rican
heart transplant recipient, Miguel succumbed to AIDS, leaving behind a liv=
e-in partner, a devout Catholic mother, and a lot of troubling rumors.=

25 years later Cecilia’s =
mother handed her a box of 8mm home movies that she’d found in the fa=
mily garage. Spurred by this discovery, Cecilia began asking questions
about her uncle’s mysterious death. Did Miguel really repent of bein=
g gay on his deathbed? Did his devout Catholic mother push him into it? Did=
he really have AIDS? And what happened to his partner Robert, who’d =
disappeared after Miguel died?

While recent documentarie=
s have thoughtfully documented the AIDS crisis from within communities of s=
urvivors, Memories of a Penitent Heart does something
totally new. It is the first feature-length documentary to explore a very =
common occurrence during the crisis—faith-based discrimination agains=
t people with AIDS—from the perspective of a descendant reckoning wit=
h her family’s responsibility. This film demonstrates
what happens when well-meaning family members shut out their LGBT members,=
even when they don’t know they’re doing it. Memories of a Penitent=
Heart is a cautionary tale about missed opportunities, the intric=
acies of religious belief, and the most quietly
insidious forms of bigotry.