current project

filming with my mother

I’m currently editing the footage of a personal autobiographical documentary study of my relationship with my mother. My mother was a minor trash-TV celebrity with a powerful personality who also wanted to be a (very right-wing) politician, and stood for parliament. I found it hard to get on with her and for many years we barely spoke at all, but following a series of events – Covid isolation breaking down her fortress of independence, my marriage, and a personal tragedy when my daughter was stillborn – she opened up somewhat.

She was the person who first introduced me to cinema as a child (by taking me to films I was not officially old enough to see, when she was unable to leave me at home.) She was more at ease on camera than not, and when she learnt I made documentaries she immediately wanted me to make one about her. I took the opportunity to try and re-establish some kind of relationship with her through this shared project and understand as much as I could about how she saw her own life, history and personality, before the developing work was brought to an abrupt end by her sudden illness and death in 2024.