94 minutes, 35mm (original format), drama, USA, 2013

Sharon Greytak: Writer, Director

Sharon Greytak’s Archaeology of a Woman stars Oscar nominee/Golden Globe winner Sally Kirkland as Margaret, a feisty, tormented woman who fights to protect her freedom in spite of dementia she cannot control. Her daughter Kate (Tony Winner Victoria Clark) installs a small surveillance camera to monitor Margaret at home, revealing a private life of fear, lust and longing and her connection to a 30-year-old crime. This is a visceral tale of the unsettled lives of two very different generations of women—one whose secret is buried deep inside her memories, and the other who seeks to dig up the truth.

Greytak on Archaeology of a Woman: "With Archaeology of a Woman I am creating the sensation of a mind at work with dementia, of the struggle to assemble the pieces, and the desperate drive for self-preservation. I employ character and performance to question the perceived world and acknowledge that reality in dementia exists on a number of simultaneous levels, a combination of places, of elasticized time, fear and anxiety. The structure of my films are often linked to physicality, positioning the viewer within the work to experience the sensation of thinking with dementia, or decision-making; a sense of working from the inside. In this way I uphold the dignity of a character, of humanity, faults and all."