by Vickie, movie pie™
A Mother Apart (7/8)
Director Laurie Townshend crafts a beautifully poetic examination of the mother/daughter relationship — and all the complexities, contrasts, and conflicting emotions that can arise therein — with this doc chronicling Staceyann Chin’s journey to reconcile her troubled past with her mother. A poet, performer and activist, Chin was abandoned in Jamaica by her mother, Hazel, at a very young age, and that loss/absence has been central to her work, informing everything she’s done since… including how she’s raising her daughter, Zuri. Determined to provide Zuri with the mothering she herself lacked, Chin sets out to piece together Hazel’s past, retracing her steps from Jamaica to Montreal and then across the pond to Germany, and connecting with those who knew Hazel along the way. Old photos, letters and home movies of Chin’s sporadic reconnections with Hazel (as well as Chin’s younger half-sister) over the years help color the narrative, as do clips of the entertaining “Living Room Protest” video series Chin’s created with Zuri. The film is an enlightening exploration of the sometimes rocky road to understanding, and how the emotional scars left by a parent can serve as helpful markers on the path to healing.
