Martha Gregory’s short documentary Three Red Sweaters came to fruition when she asked herself the question: how are our memories changing now that we have the ability to document every moment of our lives?

Living in the age of the smart phone, we have suddenly found ourselves with the ability to capture everything and anything. Our food, our nights out, our families – nothing is too trivial or too personal to upload to our social accounts. But do we hold on to the important memories as dearly as we once would now that we can so easily capture them and store them somewhere else?

Gregory dives into this question with a stunning collection of her grandfather’s archival footage from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. At a time when home movies weren’t that common place, he captured his extended family on holidays and days out, as well as exotic trips abroad. The footage is simply breath-taking, and with Gregory’s telephone interviews with her grandfather delicately narrating the journey, you feel that you’re catching a very intimate glimpse into a family’s history.

The grainy, colour-saturated footage somehow looks more real and alive than any iPhone video, and you start to question just how long your camera phone recordings and photos will really last. When, inevitably, social media channels become redundant or the Cloud disappears, will we actually keep our memories for generations to come or will they simply be lost in the ether? Gregory’s grandfather invested time and money to preserve his memories and pass them down, something that is a rarity now.

It’s impossible to watch Three Red Sweaters and not come away feeling a little bit warm and fuzzy. More importantly, it serves as a reminder to document those important moments, but also to simply live them and cherish them.

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INFORMATION

DIRECTOR: Martha Gregory

EDITOR: Martha Gregory

FOOTAGE: Charles F. Lowrey

MUSIC: Adam Lindquist