Mother for Life(2004)

After You(sv)

"My mother is spending all her time with her dying father. I’m spending all my time filming her. As the end is getting closer, my mother and I start doing the filming more and more together. It becomes our way of dealing with the time we have left." —Marius Dybwad Brandrud

I’ve Never Been in a Fight(en)

Have you ever been in a fight? Even thrown a punch? Because Andrew never has. His mom raised him as a pacifist, and she would like to keep it that way. But deep down, Andrew has a question: how much can he know about himself if he’s never been punched in the face? More importantly: how much can he know about his mom, the woman that has sacrificed so much for him, if he’s never fought for anything?

Back with the gang(es)

Tatiana faces an economic crisis that has forced her to be temporarily away from her kids, her "gang", as she calls them. By writing out her feelings and covering her wall with pictures of the kids, Tatiana opens her heart from the loneliness of a rented room in Bogotá. While she attempts with determination to let her kids know that, despite the circumstances, she is still there for them.

Voices That Heal(es)

Herlinda Augustin is a Shipibo healer who lives with her family in Peruvian Amazonia. Will she and other healers be able to maintain their ancient tradition despite Western encroachment?

Elogio a la Sonrisa(es)

Dinner(en)

What are one week films? They're an assignment we do our first week back at CalArts, designed to dust off cobwebs by throwing us straight into the deep end. Our class theme was "square," and we had a lot of fun playing around with compositions inspired by East Asian graphic design.

Sieben Mulden und eine Leiche(de)

Thomas Haemmerli is about to celebrate his fortieth birthday when he learns of his mother's death. A further shock follows when he and his brother Erik discover her apartment, which is filthy and full to bursting with junk. It takes the brothers an entire month to clean out the place. Among the chaos, they find films going back to the 1930s, photos and other memorabilia.

Mother was a CEO(sv)

The story about how Britt-Marie took back the brush factory from her husband’s cruel brother at the end of the fifties was one of Malin’s childhood fairy tales. Britt-Marie is now 95 years old and trying to set the story straight with the help of her daughter behind the camera. Together they outline a powerful life story that is slowly fading away.

Uma Gota de Esperança(pt)

A mother discovers that her son has a disability that causes her breast milk to intoxicate him. But the discovery comes too late to prevent the loss of neurons.

Redefining China's Family: Women(en)

10 May 2007 - China's staggering economic growth has overshadowed a more subtle shift in Chinese society. In domestic life, many women are now ignore the advice of their mothers and grandmothers, turning instead to counselling hotlines and, increasingly, divorce.

The Leading Role(uk)

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…

GEA(es)

Mi-sun(ko)

The life of Mi-sun, an elementary school lunch cook, is somewhat similar to that of her mother. The story of Mi-sun, who is someone's daughter, wife, mother, and friend who has been called a 'feeding lady' after college, when she dreamed of becoming a teacher.

American Thrift: An Expansive Tribute to the "Woman American"(en)

Chevrolet presents this tribute to the American woman and her thrifty ways with money. The film also salutes the individuality of the Amerian citizen and the variety of choices we have in the marketplace.

Babies at 50(en)

In this revealing one-hour special, we look at the lives of older mums and women desperate to become mothers - at any age. Medical experts say that it is now possible for a woman of 80 to have a baby but is it morally and ethically correct? This heart-rending program looks at the difficult choices facing women who want to become mothers late in life and explores the desperate measures they take in order to fulfill their dream.

I Named You in Silence(es)

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.

A Labor Theory of Artistic Value(en)

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.

Parents -- Who Needs Them?(en)

Jimmy learns to appreciate his parents when a hand puppet dressed as a jester visits him up in the middle of the night and renders him invisible.

Gangstresses(en)

Gangstresses, a documentary by Harry Davis, tells the story of violence, poverty, and survival in the streets from a female perspective. Over a two-year period, Davis interviews female hustlers, drug dealers, rappers, porn stars, prostitutes, mothers, and daughters. Among them are Champagne, a well-known African American porn star who has a small child; Mama Mayhem, a street hustler; Uneek, a rapper from the Bronx; and Vanessa Del Rio, a famous porn actress. Musicians Lil' Kim, Mary J. Blige, Ice T, and Tupac Shakur also share personal stories of survival. The documentary conducts follow-up research on the women's complicated lives, offering glimpses of both tragic reality and hopeful recovery.

Welcome to X-world(ko)

Three people live in Doosan Apartment in Guro-dong. Me, mom, and my grandfather. Even though it has been 12 years since dad died, we are still living under the same roof. I thought it was because of the financial situation that we could not move out of grandfather’s house. But when I found out that mom already had enough money to get a house, I became confused. Why didn’t mom move out from the “x-world” when she could? From a marriage that didn’t work out well, to a father-in-law with a temper. Why has she been enduring it, unchanging, for all the time I had witnessed her life to become a woman against marriage? One day when my anxiousness was at its peak, grandfather suggested that we live separately. Mom, reluctant to leave Guro-dong that she’d been living in for 20 years and her marriage life, will she be able to find herself and move out well?