Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 2, 1995)
m Jr 24 ▼ ju n « 2. 1905 ▼ ju s t o u t i; L T r iu m p h o v e r M e m o r y THE LESBIAN COMMUNITY PROJECT PRESENTS ITS Deborah Hoffmann’s film probes the chaos of Alzheimer’s and finds that love is all that matters ▼ by Katrin Snow J)A i^ C C $\£tf*x Aortici*. $ 4 %lv\jCAy.t J i * 4 +£. M U ?X0^»h ■ I i OC àh ' P o *XL a +JL Q-O+^VU+Ut C 1 *~U a . - B JCO NE Hi.J x +~ o ** a C S x . ~ PtntÎA^y v»> PHOTO BY TOM It’s M v Pleasure, In Other Words, LCP O )/ic e , Mother Kali's in Eugene, Rosebud tc Pish, Salem FFI: 223-0071 < 11 I I L A I I S f 2 € y C A C S C f t C I D t IN P C C T I A N D AUCTION DONOILS INCLUDE. Axirc Wiiin-Grayiton* Gailcry-lVt My p(¿asure-Bijou Cafe-Big Bear Bagel s-Esuntial Oils Doris Hoffmann ( left) and daughter Deborah Broadway Baoá>New Re rumfanut-t ¿oddest Gallery ami a Hyundai N-TEC Computer E xperience the E xtra ordinary R enaissance I n C arpetmaking . A new generation of authentic vegetable dyed Turkish rugs has reached remarkable heights in decorative appeal. Come and enjoy James Opie’s exclusive selection available now. J ames O pie ORIENTAL RUGS INCORPORATED 214 S.W. Stark Portland, OR 97204 For an Appointment, Call 226-0116 C ards W ith C lass T.J. O riginals P.O. Box 80157 P o r t l a n d , OR 97280 (503) 452-2337 Exotic color cards with thought- provoking sentiment. The Coffee Merchants * The finest imported coffee beans, teas, chocolates, and beverage brewing accessories. ♦ THE BROADWAY COFFEE MERCHANT 1637 N E B roadw ay • 2S< *>203 Ask for them by name! ♦ D edicated to prom oting a better understanding betw een people Entire line o f TJ. Originals Available at PMC Pharmacy 501 SW 10th Ave ( C o r n e r o f 1 0 t h & W a s h in g to n ) THE HAWTHORNE COFTTE MERCHANT 3562 S E Hawthorne • 230-1222 to the dentist every day. There was a Loma Doone Period and a Podiatrist Period. Then there was the Hearing Aid Period. Al though scraps of paper all over the house re minded Mrs. Hoffmann that her hearing aid was not lost, it was being repaired, she couldn’t retain the memory of having read them. One day, exas perated in her search for the hearing aid, she calls her daughter’s answering machine five times in one hour, identifying herself variously as “I’m your mother,” “I’m Debbie’s mother,” and “I’m Debbie, Mrs. Hoffmann’s daughter.” Finally, she leaves a worried message saying, “Call me back. I’ll be outside my apartment.” Then she leaves a note inside the apartment saying she’s going to go wait outside now so she can see her hearing aid. tary. The movie is unexpectedly joyful, probably because the story of Alzheimer’s disease is so Slowly, Hoffmann shows her mother’s life often about the pain of losing a parent long before and her own shatter into a thousand chunks of they die. But in Hoffmann’s gifted hands, the disconnected time. The battle with memory gets story is a journey to the discovery that the happi harder and more angry. When one day Hoffmann ness and love a mother and daughter can give to decides she doesn’t have to tell the truth anymore, one another doesn’t de it ’ s the begi nning of change. pend on the memory that When Hoffmann decides she She realizes the content of they are related. doesn’t have to tell the truth their conversations doesn’t In monologues to the matter at all, what counts is anymore it’s the beginning camera, and by filming the feeling between herself of change She realizes the and Doris. Hoffmann be conversations and out- ings with her mother, content of their conversations gins to carry on lively con versations with her mother in startling d e ta ii-th e doesn t matter at all, what that have little or nothing to stages of her mother s counts is the feeling between do with their real history, and might be about events her own fi^ht agamst herself and Doris. that never happened. This ognizing how serious it is. When her mother produces moments that may look crazy from the begins writing notes to herself to fight the memory outside, but are so full of human love that they loss, Hoffmann films strings of notes that say the shake the mind loose from the rigidity of what is same thing. She relates the conversations she had sane and allow for the wisdom of dementia. when she painstakingly told her mother the truth, Hoffmann’s film skillfully shows the triumph of over and over. “You’ve known me since I was two people’s love over time-locked memory. bom,” Deborah tells her mother. “Really? Was I Complaints o f a Dutiful Daughter will air at across the street or something?” 10 pm on OPB on Tuesday, June 6, on the POV There is comedy in the excruciating chaos of show. Frances Reid, the film’s cinematographer mania, and Hoffmann allows for it. She films the and Hoffmann’s life partner, says the movie is nutty conversations in which Doris Hoffmann unlikely to have a theatrical release; it’s a film tries to figure out something like how old she is people often won ’ t go to see on purpose, because and whether Deborah is her sorority sister. In one they expect it to be sad and difficult. But don’t let of her most amusing techniques, Hoffmann gives the topic keep you away from any opportunity to formal names to the periods in her mother’s see it. Complaints o f a Dutiful Daughter has you illness. There was the Banana Period, when Doris laughing more often than crying. It is a memo would eat dozens upon dozens of bananas every rable and beautiful film, and its joy remains day, having no recollection that she’d just eaten long, long after the film has ended. one. There was the Dentist Period, when she went hen Deborah Hoffmann’s father died, her mother managed to call and tell her, but when Hoffmann arrived, her mother didn’ t know where the body was or that he was dead. This was the beginning of Hoffmann’s journey through her mother’s battle with Alzheimer’s, recorded in Complaints o f a Dutiful Daughter, a film that received an Oscar nomination this year for best feature documen- W , .
