More Than I Want To Remember

USA, 2022, 14'

SCREENING FOR SCHOOLS

Mugeni spent a simple and happy life in her village nestled in the Congolese wilderness until one night it was razed by an armed local militia. She is only fourteen years old, but she is forced to embark on a long, lonely journey – from Congo to Kenya, up to the United States – to find her place in the world and begin a new life. She has had to endure long nights without food in the darkness of the forest; gruelling red tape procedures to verify the reliability of her story; many losses and new beginnings. The heroine goes back on her story step by step, guided by her obstinate determination and desire to find her family again. The documentary offers an intimate, immersive experience built on the gaps and presences of Mugeni’s voice, sustained by the warm colours and bold strokes of an animation that takes the audience to faraway places. Amy Bench’s short is a small gem in which the inflections of the voice timbre, whispers, and silences are more telling than the story in itself, for the viewer who knows how to listen.