The Memory Blocks

Beautiful, humanistic and profound, The Memory Blocks feels like the apotheosis of acclaimed filmmaker Andrew Kotting’s collaborations with his daughter Eden. Set in some almost forgotten factory, a plucky band of neurodivergent workers help Eden navigate the murky waters of memory, while a motley bunch of fantastical figures accompany her somewhere over the rainbow. 

Journeys and walks have been a recurring feature in Kotting’s oeuvre and have often been embarked upon with a knowing awareness of the ritualistic nature of the activity. Incorporating elements of 3D animation and super-8 footage from the family archive, th film digs deeper into an interior landscape as it interrogates the uncertainties around memory. 

Memory is not just a personal thing, it can be collective. Think of the recorded events that have occurred in our absence which make up our memories. But perception is also unreliable. So can we even be sure we have witnessed what has happened? What Kotting’s film expresses beautifully, is how desperately fragile memory is. Even so, it is best to flow with the flights of fancy. 

Perhaps the greatest certainty in the dream-life-film which unfolds before our eyes in The Memory Blocks can be attributed to Eden: “We are searching for ourselves in each other.”

Followed by a Q&A with the director.