Still Processing

Time it was
And what a time it was
It was a time of innocence
A time of confidences

-Paul Simon
 

The act of remembrance is something so deep and personal that it’s difficult to convey to other people, even your loved ones. How you recall your past is so uncanny that others might think that it’s wrong. You recall your family, your first kiss, dancing with friends, as you choose to believe it. Others may have different memories.
 
Sophy Romvari’s remarkable film Still Processing, has a deep connection to memories of her past. Romvari’s family is Hungarian, a language she spoke as a child, and she clearly relates to the European cultural aesthetic practiced by her father, who had been a cinematographer before coming to Canada. His intense artistic shots of the Romvari family—some just partial images of faces, others slightly off-angle group portraits—give texture to a film that is about recapturing what is now gone but can be remembered, at least in fragments.
 
At her insistence, Romvari’s father has sent Sophy photos and videos of the family, including images of two brothers who have since died. With some help from her remaining brother, Romvari goes through the imagery, with her audience complicit in the evocations of what was seemingly a lovely past. We know that much more is lurking in the images and memories—things that are darker and still too hard to confront.
 
Still Processing feels like a provisional title and it’s one with a dual meaning. Sophy Romvari plunges her father’s negatives into a tank and develops photographs the old-fashioned way. The process allows her to see images form in front of her eyes until they became proper photos. It takes time but it works. Similarly, she is working through the deaths of her brothers—still processing.
 
Sophy Romvari makes intense, personal films. They document her life in a way that is mysterious. We work with her to understand her life and family.

Marc Glassman
Editor, POV Magazine