© Binghamton University / Jonathan Cohen, September 30, 2014

I Still Don’t Know Her Name

What happens after you save someone’s life? 

By Megan Burney

Years after I rescued the little girl from the river, I still have mixed feelings about what happened afterwards.  I don’t know her name and probably never will.  The people in my life remember it as this great thing I did during college, but it just doesn’t feel like that to me.  In fact, I don’t think it’s about me at all.  In this doc, I revisit the event, interweaving my recollections with those of my two friends who were with me the day of the rescue.  It is an exploration of the unreliability of memory and of what it means to be deemed a hero.

Special thanks to my editor, Kalli Anderson, and to Binghamton University for use of the accompanying photos. All music heard in this piece is from the Free Music Archive with thanks to artist’s Kai Engel for their song September and Blear Moon with Few Survivors.