See Memory

A painter uses art to explore memory, PTSD, and breakthroughs in neuroscience. (PBS Broadcast Premiere 2025)
by
Year Released
2022
Film Length(s)
15 mins
Closed captioning available
Remote video URL

Introduction

A painter uses art to explore memory, PTSD, and breakthroughs in neuroscience

Painter Viviane Silvera uses 30,000 hand-painted stills to explore memory, PTSD, and breakthroughs in neuroscience. Animation of her paintings combined with narration based on research by Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel and other scientists offers a visualization of the brain’s process of forming, altering and storing memories. The film visualizes how the unconscious and the conscious brain heals trauma.

See Memory explores the impact of ordinary and traumatic memories on our lives, showing how they exist differently in the brain and examining therapeutic methods that help people process and heal from painful experiences. The film redefines our relationship with memory, providing viewers with tools for understanding mental health, fostering empathy, and offering a potentially life-changing perspective on resilience and recovery.

With 320 million people worldwide suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and countless others navigating the effects of memory, See Memory holds universal appeal, offering viewers a unique experience that blends compelling visuals and transformative storytelling.

Featured review

"See Memory is a stunning dramatization of the complexity and emotional power of human memory. In a visual and narrative journey that is as haunting as it is insightful, the film offers nothing short than an entirely new way of imagining memory, trauma, presentness, and emotional experience. Its beauty is matched only by its brilliance. See Memory should be required viewing."
R. John Williams
Associate Professor, English, Film and Media, Yale University

Synopsis

Painter Viviane Silverauses art to explore memory and PTSD, animating 30,000 images to provide a visualization of the brain’s process of forming, altering and storing memories. The art is combined with narration based on breakthroughs in neuroscience research by Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel and other scientists to show how we can bridge the conscious and the conscious brain and heal trauma.

INCLUDES:

- Downloadable MEMORY CALENDAR

- Downloadable MEDIA KIT

- 17 CHAPTERS from the film focusing on subtopics related to memory and healing from trauma.

For information on how to host a panel and screening email seememoryfilm@gmail.com

Reviews

"As a neuroscientist who studies how emotional memories are represented in the human brain, I was thoroughly impressed by the film's insights about the dynamics and subtleties of memories, and I was deeply moved by the artful way these ideas were expressed. The filmmaker was able to express scientific concepts and biological mechanisms of memory using art. During the last decade there has been tremendous interest in the science of memory, particularly in light of new discoveries on the biology of memory storage and retrieval, which may allow modifying traumatic memories. See Memory expresses these ideas in a very intuitive and artistic way."


Daniela Schiller, Phd
Director of the Schiller Lab, Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine
"The insights that are offered are both powerful and meaningful. I felt those insights washing over me like the different watercolor paintings as they flashed on the screen. This is a lovely presentation of profound ideas that are exceedingly difficult to explore in any medium, including film. The real genius of this film is a clever way of framing what are very profound statements, narrated in a careful, thoughtfully-paced way, against the backdrop of changing watercolor images."
Film Screener
D.C Shorts Film Festival
"New York City artist uses 10,000 painting stills to create animated film about the mind."
The title was inspired by Oliver Sacks’ article "Speak, Memory" and narration is based on interviews with neuroscientists and psychiatrists, including Nobelist Eric Kandel.
ArtDaily
ArtDaily
"Silvera puts memory into motion"
Nicole Teitler
Writer, Dan's Papers
"One memorable project
Arts & Living
27 East
It is truly a magnificent piece, “beautiful, ethereal, dreamlike.”
Simon Fortin
Lecturer, New York University
One of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. A real experience.
Dr.Paul Browde
Dr. Paul Browde, Columbia University, School of Professional Studies
Brilliant, incredibly profound and so beautiful
Jill Eikenberry
Actor and Producer
"The response has been outstanding. The film facilitates discussion about memory and the impact of both physical and psychological trauma on memory in a very humanistic and personal way. It allows viewers to reflect on and share their personal experiences. The film opens the door to understanding the science of memory and it promotes an understanding of personal trauma and equally important an understanding about the important role of the community in helping victims of trauma through their healing process. "
Silvana Riggio
Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry and Rehabilitation, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
"With over 30,000 painted stills, 'See Memory' is a visually stunning exploration of how memory interacts with imagination to shape our perspectives of the past.

Through interviews with neuroscientists and psychiatrists, including Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel, Viviane Silvera bridges art and science to communicate profound insights about memory.
Camila Dangot
Writer, Brown Art Review

Awards and Screenings

PBS Television Premiere Spring 2024
Edward Hopper House & Museum Award of Excellence
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
The Friedman Brain Institute
National Streaming on PBS.org Spring 2024
Mental Film-ness Film Festival
Awareness Film Festival
Viten Film Festival
Blow Up Chicago Art House Film Festival
Big Apple Film Festival
Altspace VR Scenes & Screens Film Festival

Director Commentary

I was born and raised in Hong Kong until I was 10, then moved to Brazil for five years before landing in New York at the age of 15. My memories of Hong Kong often feel just out of reach. If memory is the story we tell ourselves about how we became who we are, who are we when those memories slip away? I created See Memory to explore and come to terms with my own fraught relationship to memory.

In his book Speak Memory, neurologist Oliver Sacks reflects on how his childhood memories blend personal experiences with stories he heard or read. He explains that emotion is the strongest encoder of memory. When a story triggers a strong emotion, fragments of it may be absorbed into our own memory. Neurologically, there is no way to distinguish experienced memory from imagined memory. This fascinated me and led me to ask: How do we remember, and why do we remember?

Through interviews with psychiatrists and neuroscientists, See Memory brings art and science together to explore the dynamics of memory. The film provides a vivid, visceral experience of what it means to remember—to be both haunted and enriched by the memories that shape our identity. I believe the need to understand memory and its profound influence on who we are is universal.

Features and Languages

Film Features

  • Closed Captioning
  • Director's Commentary
  • Transcript

Film/Audio Languages

  • English

Subtitle/Caption Languages

  • English

Promotional Material

Promotional Stills

Resources for Educators

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