SYNOPSIS: To make a film about Marguerite Yourcenar is to draw a portrait of one of the most important authors of the twentieth century.  By interweaving her work into the story, the film will also trace key cultural and historical developments as seen through Yourcenar's perceptive eyes.  Yourcenar, through her work and her life, offers a unique perspective on this tumultuous period in history.  The first woman to become a member of the French Academy, and one of the first living French writers to have her completed works published in the prestigious Pléiade series, Yourcenar has received international recognition and acclaim.  ALIVE MEMOIRS follows the trail of Marguerite Yourcenar across three continents, with interviews with friends and associates she knew well in her most creative days.

"My own existence, if I had to write of it, would be reconstructed by me from externals, laboriously, as if it were the life of someone else: I should have to turn to letters, and to recollections of others, in order to clarify such uncertain memories." -Marguerite Yourcenar, Reflections on the composition of Memoirs of Hadrien.