Program: 7:00p

Offsite
Peter Jay Sharp Building
BAM Rose Cinemas
Brooklyn, NY

UnionDocs is thrilled to team up with Third Horizon and The Luminal Theater for the latest edition of the Caribbean Film Series!

This biannual celebration of bold, original cinema is back with a weekend of incredible films from some of the most exciting Caribbean filmmakers today. This winter’s lineup brings powerful stories from across the region and the diaspora—including work by local creators. We’re delighted to feature UNDO Summer Doc alum Laurie Townshend’s A Mother Apart, a deeply moving documentary,  following Jamaican-American poet Staceyann Chin’s journey to redefine motherhood.

We can’t wait to share this and more incredible films with you, spark conversations, and celebrate the depth and creativity of Caribbean cinema. Don’t miss it!

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.

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 shortThe 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)