See Memory Film

see memory

What if you could paint a new picture of your past?

A PBS-featured, hand-painted film and clinical toolkit exploring memory, trauma, healing, and the stories we carry.

Available for classrooms, medical education, clinical training, staff wellness, and community screenings.

Now booking Mental Health Awareness Month and PTSD Awareness Month programs.

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A hand-painted film created from over 30,000 paintings exploring how memory works—and how it can change.

RECENT PROGRAMS & INSTITUTIONAL COLLABORATIONS

See Memory has been presented in medical, academic, clinical, and interdisciplinary settings where art, neuroscience, memory, and healing meet.

The Question Behind See Memory

What if memory is not a fixed record, but something alive?

See Memory uses more than 30,000 hand-painted images to explore how memory is formed, altered, and carried through emotion, trauma, story, and the body. Grounded in neuroscience and visual storytelling, the film asks whether we can learn to see the past differently, not by erasing what happened, but by changing our relationship to what we remember.

Explore how SEE MEMORY can spark conversations in your community.

 

🏆 2025 Telly Award

SEE MEMORY was honored with the 2025Telly Award in 2D Animation, recognizing excellence in hand-drawn animated storytelling.

Directed, painted, and animated by Viviane Silvera, the film is composed of over 30,000 individually hand-painted frames. It visualizes how memory is formed, fragmented, and reshaped—bridging neuroscience, trauma research, and visual art.

SEE MEMORY has now screened at over 50 institutions worldwide, including Yale, UCLA, Tufts, Vassar, the Friedman Brain Institute, The Edward Hopper House, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

🎬 Now booking for 2026–2027:
Bring this award-winning film to your university, museum, or mental health organization—and invite Viviane Silvera to speak about the artistry, science, and healing behind it.

BRIDGING ART AND SCIENCE TO HEAL TRAUMA AND INSPIRE HOPE

“A stunning dramatization of the complexity and emotional power of human memory. An entirely new way of imagining memory, trauma and emotional experience. It’s beauty is matched only by its brilliance.”

R. John Williams, Professor, Yale University

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REACHING NATIONAL AUDIENCES

Filmmaker and painter Viviane Silvera has been recognized for her work in national publications and podcasts.

THE SEE MEMORY PROJECT

"Art captures the personal, emotional experience in a way science cannot."

-Daniela Schiller, PhD. The Schiller Lab, Mount Sinai

  • Through it’s unique and accessible blend of art and science SEE MEMORY can reach people of ALL AGES, many who cannot otherwise be reached

  • SEE MEMORY helps parents, children, teachers, and therapists build trust and understanding through shared conversations about memory.

  • SEE MEMORY can be used as a therapeutic tool

    “I began to use excerpts as an augmentation tool to psychotherapy with patients who have been victims of trauma. The response has been outstanding.”

    -Dr. Silvana Riggio, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

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 OUR SCREENING PARTNERS

SEE MEMORY and The See Memory Project are made possible by generous partners who recognize the need for the use of art to express science, spread understanding and a compassionate approach to mental illness. We extend our deepest graditute to:

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“A beautiful thing, a film that stimulates both the heart and the mind”

- Kent Hill, Film Threat

“Bridges art and science to communicate profound insights about memory."

- Camilla Dangot, Brown University Art Paper


“Opens the door to understanding the science of memory. The response has been outstanding.”

Dr. Silvana Riggio, Professor of Neurology & Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai


“Blends art, therapy and science seamlessly.”

Paul Browde, M.D, Narrative Medicine, Columbia University


“I was thoroughly impressed by the film's insights about the dynamics and subtleties of memories.”

Daniela Schiller, Ph.D. Director of the Schiller Lab, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai


“The best part of our event was See Memory and the Q & A with Viviane. ” 

Michele H. Jacob, PhD, Neuroscientist, Tufts University


“Offers beautiful, reframing language that can support those with an often overlooked diagnosis.”

Gina Smith, International Rescue Committee


“Illuminates pathways to hope.”

Dale M. Kushner, author of The Conditions of Love and M, columnist for Psychology Today.


“An amazing introduction to how traumatic memories form an impediment to living one's life to its fullest and a tool to combat stigma around mental health."

Ramina Bebezova, Tufts University, Coordinator of Student-led Mental Health Organization