Educational Media Reviews Online

Processes of grieving and healing through art are laid bare in this short film from Filipino - American filmmaker Nich Perez. Three women artists are profiled and narrate the circumstances of who they lost and the art they produced in response.

Perez describes this film as a “poetic documentary” and much of the narration by the women about their experiences and the art that they create is vivid and rhythmic. Interspersed with home videos, a daughter describes her art and life since losing her mother, much of it in the form of letters to her. A mother who has lost her baby unexpectedly performs excerpts from her piece about this loss and talks about her role as “president of the Dead Baby Club.” We see her drawings animated and her placing the components of an installation. A wife, a fiber artist and poet, who has become a widow due to Alzheimer’s, sews together photographs printed on silk and recites her poems about mourning.

Though everyone may experience the loss of a loved one at some point in their life, most still find death, dying, and grief difficult to talk about. This film’s subject matter could be helpful in starting discussions or showing people outlets for grief since the act of grieving is often a private act.

While the women in this film vary in age, their relationships to who they lost, and in the style of art that they create, all three are white and appear to be from similar socioeconomic classes. By only documenting these three women, the filmmaker may have missed an opportunity to allow for perspectives from more diverse artists and increase opportunity for members of marginalized groups to find connection and representation in the subjects.

This film could be a good addition to both academic and public library collections for use in courses on art, writing, art therapy, psychology, and women’s studies, and as general interest for those dealing with grief.

Awards:
Official Selection, StoryBolt’s 4th Short Documentary Contest; Award Winner, Go Mental! International Short Film Festival; Official Selection, Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival; Official Selection, 74th University Film and Video Association Conference; Finalist, Mountain Shadow Film Society’s 6th Annual Short Film Competition; Jury Prize Nominee, First Look Film Festival; Official Selection, Filmstrip International Film Festival; Finalist, Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival

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