Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

The First Thing I Remember (2005)

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‘How I saw the world’

This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

Three people recall their earliest memories.

Curator’s notes

In The First Thing I Remember, Super 8 sequences recreate early memories described by interviewees. Director of photography Nicola Daley and director Tamara Meem focus on a first person, child’s perspective with their framing choices.

Meem’s editing emphasises the fragmented nature of the memories and Biddy Connor’s score adds a lyrical feel. Although these memories often focus on one or two images or feelings, the film communicates a sense of the iconic nature they gain by being the earliest images in a person’s mind, at a time when they are forming an understanding of the world.