film

Before You Go: A Daughter’s Diary

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Producer(s)	Nicole Betancourt
Director(s)	Nicole Betancourt
Release Date	1996
Work In Progress	No
Runtime	55 min
Format(s)	none
Language(s)	English
Youth Media	No

Film Description

In 1993 Jeffrey Betancourt died of AIDS. His daughter Nicole Betancourt’s personal documentary about him, however, takes on much more than that.

Nicole Betancourt started filming her parents with a super-8 camera when she was only three-and-a-half years old. Twenty years later Nicole explores her relationship with her gay father and chronicles the devastating effects of his illness on her and her family.

Like cinema verite filmed by an insider, she compassionately probes her parents failed marriage, the dynamics of her extended family and her father’s ravaging illness with a clear, yet deeply invested eye. Nicole asks them questions on camera that she never dared to ask before. Her father, who had been so reluctant to open up to Nicole in the past begins to talk to her about being gay. She discovers her grandmother Dorothy’s disapproval of her son’s homosexuality and shows how little it affects Dorothy’s love and care for him during his final illness. She also uncovers the unusual relationship her father has with his ex-lover Chris. Nicole’s mother Jeanne, a former nun, talks to her daughter about how naive she was when she married Jeff and what it felt like to learn of his double life.

Before You Go documents how a divided family comes together in a time of crisis and tells the poignant story of a daughter’s urgent quest to understand her father before he dies.

“It’s hard to describe how moving and effective this one-hour documentary short is, about a daughter coming to grips with the death of her father from AIDS. The film is brave, daring, emotional and, at the same, objective, even though nakedly personal.”
R. HUNTER GARCIA, The Hollywood Reporter (Weekly International Edition)

“Before You Go is not only the story of a person living with AIDS, it’s also about a family learning to cope with the disease as well as their own prejudices, sorrow, anger, and love. You can’t help but feel like you know these people.”
JENNY RYAN, Time Out New York

“What emerges from ‘A Daughter’s Diary,’ supplemented with home movies from Ms. Betancourt’s and her father’s past, is a touching portrait of compassion.”
JOHN O’CONNOR, The New York Times

Before You Go won an EMMY award, a Golden Spire (San Francisco International Film Festival) and Two Cable Ace nominations.

Official Site	http://www.ambrosevideo.com/displayitem.cfm?vid=537
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