Three generations of women fuel a moving story in A Mother Apart. The documentary, released for free streaming from the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) just in time for International Women’s Day, follows poet and activist Staceyann Chin as she seeks to repair her relationship with her estranged mother, Hazel, while strengthening her connection to her own daughter, Zuri. The film offers a touching, personal, and intimate consideration of the role that mothers play in one’s development and sense of self as Chin assess her own responsibility as a parent by recognizing the impact that Hazel’s absence had on her life.
A Mother Apart, directed by Laurie Townshend and produced by OYA Media Group and the NFB, hits streaming after an acclaimed festival run that included a win for the People’s Choice Award at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival and a triple crown run at Toronto’s Inside Out LGBT Festival. It won Best Canadian Feature, Best First Feature, and the Audience Award for documentary at TO’s queer fest. Those prizes also speak to the film’s uniqueness: a portrait of queer motherhood that spans generations, and one that focuses on a women’s understanding of a mother’s presence and its influence in her own voice as an artist and activist. Along the way, Chin reconsiders her definition of “home” and the role that plays in her understanding of selfhood as her journey to connect with Hazel brings her to old haunts that hold key memories.
“This extraordinary portrait of a woman haunted and scarred by abandonment turns into a tale of real strength and joy,” said Susan G. Cole while reviewing A Mother Apart during Hot Docs. “The essence of A Mother Apart then becomes not Chin’s painful childhood, but rather her moving journey from anger to empathy. She discovers how to find grace for someone who failed her.”
Watch A Mother Apart below.
A Mother Apart, Laurie Townshend, provided by the National Film Board of Canada
