Alan Berliner uses his reclusive father as the reluctant protagonist of this poignant and elegant study of family history and memory. The result is a uniquely cinematic biography that finds both humor and emotion in the whirlwind of conflict and affection that binds father and son. Ultimately, this complex portrait is a meeting of two minds: where the past intersects with the present, where generations collide, and where the boundaries of family life are pushed, strained, stretched, torn, and, surprisingly, sometimes healed.
The presence of Alan Berliner (New York, 1956) at the 30th edition of FIDOCS will delight his admirers and those who appreciate the infinite and unexpected possibilities of documentary filmmaking. Those unfamiliar with his work will have the opportunity to experience for the first time the emotions evoked by this unclassifiable body of work: as experimental as it is narrative, as comic as it is serious, as luminous as it is painful, as personal as it is relatable to anyone who identifies as human.
Berliner is capable of questioning his father—as demonstrated by his most famous film, 'Nobody's Business' (1996)—, of exploring the world through the newspaper clippings he has obsessively collected ('Letter to the Editor', 2019), or of paying homage to a friend who died during the Covid pandemic ('Benita', 2025) without falling into the egocentric territories of "autobiographical cinema." Quite the opposite: the more he explores his own little world, the more universal he becomes.
How does he do it? With honesty, intelligence, sensitivity, a certain obsession with collecting images, and a rare warmth in contemporary cinema. These are some of the qualities that help decipher the universe of a filmmaker admired by colleagues, critics, programmers, and students, whose work seems destined to continue finding new audiences.
Andrés Nazarala R, FIDOCS 30 programmer
Alan Berliner (1956, United States) is an independent filmmaker renowned for combining experimental cinema, artistic purpose, and popular appeal in his cinematic essays. His films are part of documentary film and film history programs at universities in various countries. His filmography includes 'The Family Album' (1986), 'Intimate Stranger' (1991), 'Nobody's Business' (1996), 'The Sweetest Sound' (2001), 'Wide Awake' (2006), 'First Cousin Once Removed' (2013), 'Letter to the Editor' (2019), and 'Benita' (2025). His work is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA). He has received fellowships from the Rockefeller, Guggenheim, and Jerome Foundations and has won three Emmy Awards. In 2024 he received the DOC NYC Lifetime Achievement Award and, the following year, the Pennebaker Lifetime Achievement Award at the Hamptons Doc Fest Film Festival.