An Extraordinary Documentary Portrait of a Playwright Facing Alzheimer's Disease

Michelle Memran's documentary portrait of playwright María Irene Fornés, "The Rest I Make Up," was filmed over 15 years as she battled Alzheimer's disease, reports the New Yorker . Despite her inevitable decline, Fornés remains exalted as an artist, and celebrates the very nature of the life of an artist as an continuous act of creation in itself. When filming originally began, Memran had no specific project in mind, but the playwright's worsening memory loss and cessation of writing eventually led to an Alzheimer's diagnosis. As the film chronicles, the erosion of Fornés' short-term memory does not impact the power and emotional heft of her immediate observations and interpretations. Memran is quite aware of the ethical controversy of filming Fornés in a state of increasing disability. Fornés specifies her desire to present herself fully and frankly to the camera. "I prefer not to hide anything," she says. "If you expose anything about you ... you are a freer person." Fornés never loses the awareness of her performative presence. "The camera, to me, is my beloved ... and I give everything I have to a camera," she notes.