Jay Rosenblatt is a softy. In this moving film, the protagonists are the filmmakers, couple Jay Rosenblatt and Stephanie Rapp, who set out on a journey 25 years ago in order to have their own offspring. 25 years later, the movie is in dialogue with the contemporary erosion of reproductive rights.
In an intimate documentary, ‘Heartbeat’ questions the limits of privacy. Jay Rosenblatt, who has already been honoured at IndieLisboa in 2006, teams up with Stephanie Rapp, his wife, to direct this visual diary filmed 25 years ago when they decided to become parents. The agreement was to film each other without restrictions, allowing them to capture moments of the couple’s daily life, avoiding censorship and prejudice. The result is a work of editing that, so many years after the images were taken, reveals significant choices, where what you see ends the very second you don’t want to see any more. What could be embarrassing becomes an affirmation of their personal freedom, suggesting that the discomfort we feel reflects our own circumstances. The film exists and makes sense because so much time has passed between what we see and where we are now, and this striking temporal distance, which echoes the spirit of the previous film, ‘How do you measure a year?’, is both terrifying and fascinating. (Margarida Moz)
