Established in 1997, the Persistence of Vision Award honors the achievement of a filmmaker whose main body of work falls outside the realm of narrative feature filmmaking. This year the award goes to Lynne Sachs.

In forensic science, “trace” is the material left behind at crime scenes: fibers, gunshot residue, and other evidence that detectives use as they develop suspects and leads. SFFILM Persistence of Vision award winner Sachs takes inspiration from this concept to investigate her own life and assumptions, using as her “trace” six hundred business cards she amassed over forty years, representing everyone from a boy she slept with in college to tradespeople to film world associates. She settles on a handful to probe in depth—including a textile artist, a hairdresser, a therapist, a film festival director, and Lawrence Brose, a gay filmmaker “canceled” after his conviction for possessing child pornography. With a mass of swirling imagery, Sachs’s own narration, and a sonic sound design underpinned by Stephen Vitiello’s omnipresent score, the film becomes a personal epiphany as Sachs comes to realize that the trace is not only in the cards but in her own imperfect memory.