Show of the week: First Cousin Once Removed

Memory is the raw material of poets. So what happens when a poet loses the ability to remember clearly? Edwin Honig, a revered man of letters, was already beginning to suffer the effects of Alzheimer’s when filmmaker Alan Berliner, a distant relative, began five years of interviews. Berliner has blended found footage with passages from Honig’s writings to create a visual poem about the way that any of us compose a sense of self from assorted memories, both the good and the bad. This unforgettable film makes life appear suddenly more fleeting. Monday, Sept. 23, at 9 p.m., HBO

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