A Knowledge They Cannot Lose (1989)

Using both found footage and her own material Nina Fonoroff recollects the memory of her father Constructing and deconstructing a portrait she weaves family and friends remembrances with an inquiry into her own work process Her searching attitude suggests that with the loss of her father came a question of the role not of a particular father but the father figurea refusal of authority and an appreciation of her fathers cycles of learning teaching learning As Danny Kaye playing Hans Christian Andersen tells a group of children the story of the piece of chalk that saw itself as a the source not the transmitter of knowledge one senses Fonoroffs sorrow at the loss inherent in the film image and a yearning for the source of the image not just its projection