Filmmaker Bio

Cecilia Aldarondo (Director/Producer/Writer) is an award-winning documentary director/producer whose work has been supported by the Sundance Institute, Firelight Media, Field of Vision, the Independent Filmmaker Project, the Jerome Foundation and many others. Her feature documentary Memories of a Penitent Heart had its world premiere at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. She is a 2017 Women at Sundance Fellow and was named one of the "25 New Faces of Independent Film" for 2015 by Filmmaker magazine.

Profoundly affecting...A highly personal portrait of the importance of embracing who you have while you still can.

— Nick Schager, Village Voice

Emotionally draining but perfect all the same … the way this documentary has been put together is incredible.

— Josh Withey, The Independent

Most of all, Memories of a Penitent Heart is an extraordinary act of bravery...So raw, it speaks universally for the unresolved family conflicts that are common to all.

— Laura Davis, One Room With A View

Memories of a Penitent Heart is a found poem—heartfelt, sincere and aching in all the best ways.

— David Shreve, Audiences Everywhere

Aldarondo's remarkable detective work makes us present to the conflict homosexuality has against conservative religion and vice versa.

— John Townsend, Lavender