HISTOIRE D'UN SECRET
By Mariana Otero, Documentary, 95', 1970, 35mm, FRANCE

“When I was 4 _ years old, my mother disappeared. Our family told us that she had left to work in Paris. One year and half later, our grandmother said to us that she had died of appendicitis. 25 years later, our father decided to reveal to us the real circumstances of her death. But those lies had erased from my memory even the memory of her disappearance. I then felt the need of rebuilding this history, in order to understand how secrecy had settled in on our family and to find the person that had been doubly torn away from me by death and the secrecy.” (Mariana Otéro).
While reconsidering this family and autobiographical event, the filmmaker denounces the dangers of abortion, when it is practiced clandestinely.

MARIANA OTERO
Born in 1963, Mariana Otero is the daughter of the painters Clotilde Vautier and Antonio Otero. She has been making medium-length documentary films since 1987, for which she has received many prices. She has directed La Loi du collège (1994), “best documentary film” of the 5th edition of Doclisboa in Lisbon.