Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds

An intimate portrait of Hollywood royalty featuring Debbie Reynolds, Todd Fisher, and Carrie Fisher.

Ona Carbonell: Starting Over

In August 2020, Olympic artistic swimmer Ona Carbonell became a first time mother, an experience that reshaped her life overnight.

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I Named You in Silence

The Rastreadoras de El Fuerte are a group of mothers of disappeared persons in northern Sinaloa who, in the absence of the authorities, twice a week go out with picks and shovels in search of the remains of their children; a testimony of the abandonment of the State, the aggressions of the drug traffickers, the indifference of society and the pain, but also of the strength and courage that keep these women together, and of their empowerment to mobilize society in community organization.

Until Porn Do Us Part

Eulália, a conservative Portuguese mother, found out that her son who emigrated to Germany has become Fostter Riviera, the internationally awarded first Portuguese gay porn actor. She suffers with the distance, sometimes toned down through the computer that has become her main source of information and communication with her son. This documentary focuses on the long journey of this mother towards acceptance and endeavour to get closer to her son.

Terwijl het liefde was

Artistic director of the National Theater Eric de Vroedt writes and directs a performance about his own mother Winnie, who passed away in 2020. This piece, titled The Century of My Mother, is a family story about the migration from the Dutch East Indies to the Netherlands. It is De Vroedt's way of examining the relationship with his mother and not having to say goodbye to her yet: 'I can let her live on stage, but when the curtain falls, when the play is completely finished, then she is really dead'.

Mother

Mother compiles clips of mother figures from classic Hollywood cinema and television dramas. The figures range from the Virgin Mary and Mother Courage, to characters from Maude (1972–78), Aliens (1986), Imitation of Life (1959), and American Gangster (2007). The characters play out scenes of care, loss, emotional manipulation, abandonment, and grief. The intense relationships between mothers and daughters are especially prominent.

Calling Mother

Calling Mother is about the moments when you just have to call your mum. It is a compilation of phone calls made by different people to their mothers. Film follows the lifespan of a human being from youth to adulthood, a child changing from a dependent to a caretaker. Phone calls are connected by images of an old telephone center and a story of a young mother who doesn’t have a mother to call.

Beautiful Births

An informational documentary that invites you to explore another side of pregnancy and childbirth which is not often shown in the mainstream media. In this documentary we take a look at the Midwifery Model of Care, show and tell what a birth center is and what one can expect with an out of hospital birth experience. We answer the most common questions and address the concerns most people have about out of hospital births. We also discuss C-section, VBAC, ICAN, Interventions, the importance of a proper diet during pregnancy and more. We hear three women share their personal birth stories; In and out of hospital experiences. This documentary is full of good information and is a must see for all women of childbearing age interested in pregnancy and childbirth, regardless of where they choose to give birth.

Spijtmoeders

What if you love your child, but are unhappy in your role as a mother? Spijtmoeders is a documentary film about mothers who, if they could make the choice again, would rather not be mothers. Three women talk about their struggles with motherhood, the shame and guilt they feel, and the high expectations society places on them. The fear of judgment from others is great: what if people think that they are not a good mother, that they do not take good care of their child? What if they think they don't love their child? The mothers are represented by hyper-realistic dolls, but their voices are real.

Momsy

‘Over the course of several summer days in Split I talked to my mom about everything. I mean, really everything.’

The Leading Role

The film is about the director’s mother, the movie actress Nina Antonova. Now she is 80. She has had hundreds of roles – big and small. It is a personal story about an honest and sad life, about self-sacrifice and freedom. Real fame as an actress came to her only once in her life. It was the leading role in the first Soviet colour TV series Varka’s Land. That was 45 years ago…

"WŁODZIMIERZ"

Mother Land

When filmmaker Mari Soppela took her children and husband to live for a year on a sacred mountain in her native Finland, she was fulfilling a lifelong dream to share the arctic wilderness of her childhood with her family. But when years later her children turn the camera onto her, she is forced to confront her motivation for filming their lives in this searching and searingly honest cinematic exploration of identity, belonging and motherhood. Filmed over the course of 27 years, Mother Land challenges us all to examine the landscapes we carry within us and the narratives we create to make sense of our lives.

A Labor Theory of Artistic Value

Exploring the intersections between gendered reproductive labor that keeps the cultural space in motion, and the reproductive labor of motherhood, A Labor Theory of Artistic Value, on Mothering and Art combines video projection, a delivered text, and a performative act of cultural maintenance.

Elogio a la Sonrisa