Borrowing its title from a literary genre, Autoficción acknowledges the indeterminacy of both fiction and the self. Noir elements are reduced to deadpan gestures under bright California sunlight. Field recordings made in New Zealand are heard as women speak with each other about motherhood, abortion, breakups, and anxiety. A civil rights parade moves slowly down a street. Bodies appear in states of weariness, injured or at rest, while songs by Irma Thomas and Goldberg evoke the passing of time and an uncertain future.
In support of Autoficción's online premiere, Emma Kemp joined Laida Lertxundi in conversation. You can read a transcript of their discussion below alongside collage works from Lertxundi that encompass the life of the film and her collaborators.