First Cousin Once Removed

First Cousin Once Removed is a 2012 documentary film that offers a devastating yet deeply empathetic perspective on the debilitating condition of Alzheimer's disease. A very personal project for director Alan Berliner, the movie focuses on his close relative, Edwin Honig, a poet, translator, and former professor at Brown University, who is suffering from this progressive and fatal brain disorder.

First screened by HBO in 2013, First Cousin Once Removed is a bold departure from traditional documentaries, diving headlong into Honig's fractured consciousness, displaying it with a meticulous, almost loving attention to detail. This film is more than just a case study of a man losing grips with his memory and consequently, his identity. It's an intricate, often uncomfortable yet poignantly intimate exploration into how memory shapes our understanding of ourselves and our surroundings.

The film involves a series of interviews and interactions that Berliner had with Honig over a period of five years, from 2007 to 2011. The director discusses with Honig a range of subjects, including his life's accomplishments and his extensive body of literature. However, the more the disease ravages Honig's memory, the conversations become increasingly fragmented, disjointed, and confusing, making it a mirroring representation of the chaotic life inside the mind of an Alzheimer's patient.

First Cousin Once Removed is not just a powerful exploration into the mind, memory, and identity of one Alzheimer’s patient, but it exposes truths about what it means to be human, and how we perceive and understand our lives through the experiences we can recall. As Honig's memory disintegrates, we bear witness to a changing sense of self-identity changed violently by the disease. The film takes viewers on an intimate journey through an Alzheimer’s sufferer's progressively decaying memories, revealing a disquieting voyeuristic encounter into the heart of dementia.

Edwin Honig's life before his illness is recollected through archival photographs, home movies, and snippets of audio recordings, which adds a layer of rich contextual framing to the narrative. In this context, other figures emerge in the film as well. Susan Brown and Stuart Blazer, acquaintances from Honig's past, become significant parts of the memory fragments, contributing valuable insights into Honig's complex personal and professional life. These excerpts become stark contrasts to the present, highlighting the detrimental effects Alzheimer's disease has on a person's life and psyche.

Berliner’s skillful direction and editing create a cinema verite experience that blurs the line between the past and the present, the remembered and the forgotten, the objective truth and the subjective experience. This technique meaningfully captures the very essence of living with Alzheimer's, revealing the devastating reality that many victims and families of this disease live through.

First Cousin Once Removed is a brave and ambitious undertaking that is as much about Honig, as it is about Berliner, and about us as viewers. It challenges us to confront, understand, and empathize with the harsh realities of Alzheimer’s disease and its impact on human identity and memory. It encourages viewers to reflect on their perception of self and the function of memory in defining our personal narratives.

This emotionally charged film is a significant contribution to the genres of personal and medical documentaries. While it might not be an easy watch for everyone due to its vast emotional weight and challenging subject matter, it remains an essential viewing for individuals interested in understanding the humanistic and personal facets of Alzheimer's disease. It leaves viewers with a powerful understanding of life, memory, identity, and how precious our abilities to know, recall, and understand ourselves are.

First Cousin Once Removed is a haunting, intimate, and tremendously poignant portrait of a mind in decline. It's a touching tribute to Edwin Honig's life and simultaneously, a heartbreaking portrayal of an intellect slowly being silenced by an unforgiving disease. It's a must-watch for those keen on understanding the broader human implications of syndromes like Alzheimer's, taking viewers beyond diagnoses and statistics into the lived experiences.