As Fall Approaches, Camden International Film Festival Spends Time With ‘The Illusion Of An Everlasting Summer’ — SkimNews
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- Alessandra Sanguinetti's documentary "The Illusion of An Everlasting Summer" — her directorial debut after a career as an Argentinian photographer — screened Thursday at the 22nd Camden International Film Festival, having previously bowed at Locarno in August
- The film follows cousins Guillermina "Guile" Aranciaga and Belinda "Beli" Stutz on an Argentinian Pampas farm over more than 25 years, with footage beginning in 1999
- Sanguinetti initially set out to photograph farm animals but shifted to the girls after meeting them through their grandmother; she later moved from stills to video after finding photography "too flat" and wanting to "hear" her subjects
- Neither protagonist has seen the final cut — Guillermina has seen earlier versions, while Belinda refused, insisting on waiting for the official release
- The documentary will next screen at San Sebastian, followed in October by Film Fest Gent in Belgium, the Chicago International Film Festival, and Mill Valley
- The Camden festival also hosted world premieres fresh from Venice: Alex Gibney's "Musk," Laura Poitras's short "They're Here" (co-directed with Rachel Lauren Mueller), Barbara Kopple's "Union Town," and Luke Lorentzen's "Boatbuilders"
- The festival runs through Sunday in Camden and Rockland, awarding the Harrell Award, Cinematic Vision Award, and the $10,000 Fowlie Award for audience-favorite feature-length documentary
Why it matters: A 25-year longitudinal documentary following two subjects from childhood to adulthood is exceedingly rare, and Sanguinetti's stated insight — that video let her live with her subjects while still photography left her watching "from the outside" — reframes why this story required cinema rather than her established medium. CIFF continues to position itself as the immediate North American landing pad for major documentary premieres out of Venice, screening Gibney, Poitras, Kopple, and Lorentzen just days after their debuts.
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