Tomorrow and Again Tomorrow
The 1990s were the heyday of the lightweight and affordable Hi8 cameras, a time that brought forth many first-person documentaries. Unlike most of these films, Cabrera’s diary, shot in 1995, is not a purely introspective work. She focuses primarily on the others: her adolescent son, her ex-husband and her new love, her mother and the strangers on the train and in the streets. Her form of autobiography is always collective, social, polyphonic. It is only the other’s gaze, the returned gaze, that makes understanding and insight possible. The camera serves as a catalyst of communication, creating trust and distance at the same time, opening eyes and ears.