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Past Film/Video | Visiting Filmmakers | Documentaries | Series & Festivals
Cecilia Aldarondo in person
Midwest Premiere
$7 members and adults 55 and over$9 general public$5 students
ACCESSIBILITYWe strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. If you have questions about accessibility or require an accommodation such as CART captioning or ASL interpretation to participate in this event, please email accessibility@wexarts.org or call (614) 688-3890. Requests made by two weeks in advance will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the Wexner Center for the Arts will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.
If you ever felt like a misfit or outsider in high school, You Were My First Boyfriend is essential and therapeutic viewing.
In this inventive, emotional roller coaster of a documentary, filmmaker Cecilia Aldarondo reexamines her high school years through methods both playful (animations of diaries about her adolescent crush or recreating scenes from My So Called Life with her current husband) and visceral (the violence of cultural assimilation and the regrets of lost friendships). As uncomfortable (and hilariously ridiculous) as it is for Aldarondo to revisit some of the lowest moments of her youth, the film (codirected by Sarah Enid Hagey) becomes a way to honor the often-overlooked interior lives of teenage girls—and a way to heal. You Were My First Boyfriend will come alive with an audience, so don’t miss this rare chance to see it in a theater before its HBO premiere later this year. And the conversation with Aldarondo after the screening is sure to be a lively one! (91 mins., DCP)
Cecilia Aldarondo’s previous feature, Landfall, played at the all-virtual Unorthodocs in 2020.
See the complete Unorthodocs 2023 lineup.
IMAGE CAPTIONYou Were My First Boyfriend, courtesy of HBO Documentary Films.
FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BYNational Endowment for the ArtsOhio Humanities
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BYRohauer Collection FoundationWEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BYOhio Department of DevelopmentGreater Columbus Arts CouncilThe Wexner FamilyInstitute of Museum and Library ServicesOhio Arts CouncilCampusParcOhio State’s Global Arts + Humanities Discovery ThemeThe Columbus FoundationNationwide FoundationVorys, Sater, Seymour, and PeaseADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BYMike and Paige CraneAxium PackagingNancy KramerOhio State Energy PartnersOhio History Fund/Ohio History ConnectionLarry and Donna JamesBruce and Joy SollJones DayAlex and Renée Shumate
Past Film/Video
You Were My First Boyfriend