“A Photographic Memory” was one of the top award-winning films at the recent Sedona International Film Festival, garnering the Directors’ Choice for Best Indie-Spirit Award and rave audience reviews.
Winner of the Truer Than Fiction Award at the 2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards and a New York Times Critic’s Pick, “A Photographic Memory” is an intimate, genre-bending portrait of the filmmaker’s trailblazing mother, Sheila Turner Seed — a vibrant and pioneering journalist, photographer, and filmmaker, who died suddenly and tragically when Rachel was just 18 months old.
Uncovering the vast archive Turner Seed produced, including lost interviews with iconic photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bruce Davidson, Cecil Beaton, Lisette Model, and Gordon Parks, and others, Rachel attempts to build a posthumous relationship with her mother through her interviews, photographs, journals, films, and the stories of those who remember her.
The result is an unlikely mother-daughter conversation that evades time and space, exploring universal themes of memory, loss, and legacy.
“Vividly introspective … sumptuous.” — Carlos Aguila, Variety
“Soul-stirring. One of the best docs I’ve seen this year.” — Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com