December Blizzard

The upper photo shows my daughter in what was one of her happy places as a preschooler. This was six years ago. Right now, her memory of this may not be as blurred as the motion blur I tried to create in this panning shot suggests. But with the passing of an added 20 years? The lower photo is about 25 years old. I don’t recall for sure, neither time nor place. This childhood memory of a summer vacation I had with my parents is super blurry to me, close to forgotten. It’s summer-vacation season right now, and I must say I haven’t seen a film in that setting as powerful as AFTERSUN in a very, very long time. (You could check the trailer of this 2022 debut of director Charlotte Wells here.) I thought I was going to watch a film that would resonate with me because of me being the parent of a daughter just like the pro- tagonists on holiday. By the end, I was left stunned artistically and thematically by this being just as much about having parents, childhood memories (some of which captured on photo and video) and how you may re- evaluate these fragmented memories much later with the benefit of hindsight and adult maturity. Like, what were my parents like 25 years ago? What about their former happy places? This gem of a movie gets you thinking ...

Update: In fact, it has sparked a Highlights section on my Insta- gram account where I’m compiling my favourite “moving pictures” and commenting on why these movies have stayed with me, at times from a linguistic per- spective. You can find the Ling📽️Club here.

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