An intimately crafted exploration of memory and mental decline, First Cousin Once Removed is a loving portrait of Berliner’s distant cousin, friend, and former mentor Edwin Honig. Honig was a successful poet, translator, critic, and lecturer, but over the course of five years of filming, we observe the marked toll taken by Alzheimer’s and the near total loss of connection to his former self. Flickers of Honig’s poetic soul do emerge at times, though, and Berliner pieces together a raw, beautiful, and compassionate film connecting the fragility of memory with the celebration of a life.