🎬 Unspoken, yet remembered – Retelling Memories :: Grandma’s Skirt (2025) + Light Memories (2024)
This program brings together two deeply personal documentary films that explore family memory, silence, and the power of rediscovered artifacts to unlock hidden histories. Misha Vallejo retraces his family's past through the lens of his late grandfather’s camera, while Jos Mauro Witteveen Villagómez uncovers his grandmother’s wartime story through a long-forgotten liberation skirt. Both filmmakers trace memories of their families that have not been spoken about.
Together, these films reflect on the stories families choose to share—or bury—and the ways in which memory, identity, and healing are passed down.
After the two films, Jos and Misha will go into conversation.
GRANDMA'S SKIRT
Jos Mauro Witteveen Villagómez | 2025 | NL | 21’ | EN subtitles
In the Witteveen family, the war was rarely spoken of, not even by their grandmother, who had lived through it. That changes when Jos Mauro, one of her grandsons stumbles upon an old liberation skirt that belonged to her, carefully preserved for 73 years. His discovery, made through his aunt, sparks a deep curiosity about the story behind it and his interest on his Dutch history, being raised in Ecuador. Delving into archives and speaking with relatives, he sets out in search of answers. What begins as a simple find soon unfolds into a personal journey, one that traces his grandmother’s wartime experiences while prompting him to reflect on his own freedom, identity, and the importance of commemoration.
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LIGHT MEMORIES
Misha Vallejo Prut | 2024 | Ecuador | 80’ | EN subtitles
Award-winning Ecuadorian photographer Misha Vallejo goes on a deeply personal journey, using his late grandfather’s camera to recreate a lost family album. This search bridges a gap to a man he never met while confronting the absence of family photographs and the stories they might have told. Through intimate moments with his grandmother, Misha delves into themes of paternal absence, racism, and social discrimination, uncovering hidden family secrets and reclaiming spaces once denied to his loved ones. His lens captures both the pain of violence and the fluidity of memory, offering hope for connection and healing. Light Memories is a meditation on the power of photography, the resilience of family, and the possibility of reclaiming what was once lost.
