The synopsis sounds bleak – a daughter trying to understand why she grew up with a mother who seemed to loathe her. An analysis of her childhood artwork and diaries, from drawing pleading for a mother’s attention, to confused journal entries struggling to understand why she can’t draw praise, to recollections of acceptance.
Yet Gayle Kirschenbaum’s Look at Us Now, Mother! manages to have a dry, sarcastic wit that softens the blow of such potentially dark themes. An autobiographical story, Kirschenbaum charts her journey to connect with and understand her own mother’s attitude towards her. Constructed primarily through a lifetime of home video footage, and finished with interviews with family friends and consultations with psychologists and family counsellors, the memoir touches on uncomfortable memories, but from a reflective and therapeutic point of view.
Both the feature-length original documentary and abridged educational version of Look at Us Now, Mother! are now available to stream free in Australia.
Look at Us Now, Mother! (2016)
Stream free at:
Kanopy (Free with ads)
Look at Us Now, Mother! (Abridged Version) (2016)
Stream free at:
Kanopy (Ad-free)
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