Doors 7:30p
Program 8:00p

UnionDocs
352 Onderdonk Ave
Ridgewood, NY

We’re thrilled to welcome back Summer Doc Lab alum Laurie Townshend for a screening of her powerful feature documentary A Mother Apart!

An emotionally sweeping tale of healing and forgiveness, A Mother Apart accompanies powerhouse Jamaican-American poet and LGBTQ+ activist Staceyann Chin as she re-imagines the essential art of mothering—having been abandoned by her own mother. In seeking her elusive mother—a trail that leads to Brooklyn, Montreal, Cologne and, finally,  Jamaica—Staceyann and her daughter forge a new sense of home.

A healing journey spanning three generations, the film is punctuated with vivid animation, imagery from personal archives and excerpts from Staceyann’s arresting live performances. Her singularly intersectional voice, showcased in the legendary Def Poetry Slam and hit solo shows like MotherStruck!, infuses the film with deep compassion and commanding intelligence.

In Laurie’s own words —
“Early in the film’s development phase, I read an anthology titled Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines (Gumbs, Martens and Williams, 2016). In her essay “m/other ourselves: a Black queer feminist genealogy for radical mothering,” Alexis Pauline Gumbs quotes feminist icon Audre Lorde, who wrote, “We can learn to mother ourselves.” I didn’t understand this phrase at the time, but looking back, I can see that during those years—when personal heartbreak was compounded by filmmaking challenges—I was being primed for a comforting truth: motherhood takes many forms, and arguably the most important iteration of the role is when one learns to mother oneself.”

Laurie will be in attendance for a conversation following the screening. Come through!

Program

A Mother Apart

88 mins, 2014

An emotionally sweeping tale of healing and forgiveness, A Mother Apart accompanies powerhouse Jamaican-American poet and LGBTQ+ activist Staceyann Chin as she re-imagines the essential art of mothering—having been abandoned by her own mother.

How do you raise a child when your own mother abandoned you? In a remarkable story of healing and forgiveness, Jamaican-American poet and LGBTQ+ activist Staceyann Chin, renowned for performances in Def Poetry Slam and hit solo shows like MotherStruck!, radically re-imagines the essential art of mothering. In seeking her elusive mother—a trail that leads to Brooklyn, Montreal, Cologne and, finally, Jamaica—Staceyann and her daughter forge a new sense of home.

Program Duration: 88 mins

Bios

Filmmaker, writer and educator, Laurie Townshend was raised by a Jamaican mother—her family’s eloquent griot—and learned early on that before we shape stories, stories shape us. Laurie’s films centre on the human capacity to transform small acts of courage into quiet revolutions, as seen in the dramatic short The Railpath Hero (‘13, TIFF Black Star Festival), the unscripted series Human Frequency Streetdocs (‘14) and the award-winning short doc Charley (2016). Laurie’s debut feature-length documentary, A Mother Apart (‘24), won Audience Top 3 award (HotDocs), Best Canadian Feature (Inside Out), and was an Official Selection at BlackStar and DOC NYC (‘24)

Special thanks to National Film Board of Canada for co-presenting and supporting this program.