I’ll be talking about Mother’s Day, a short documentary by Elizabeth Lo on kids whose mothers were in prison and the special day on which they are able to meet.

Mother’s Day follows the children of the imprisoned, from when they gathered to get on the bus to the prison, the journey inside the bus, the briefing inside the prison, finally meeting their moms and spending half a day together, to saying goodbyes. There were a lot of shots of just the children in their own moment, no speaking just silence. I find them beautiful as they are powerful, it’s as if their silence is their way of expressing their purest emotion and they succeed in touching my heart. I also find the mother child bonding scenes really heartfelt, as the film perfectly captured so much love during their time together, as well as despair when they were to part.

The movie adapts an observational form of documentary. There were no narration, nor were there any interviews. It was purely shots of people and places, a display of raw emotions and mood. There was no background music, but ambience sounds and voices from the clip itself. It’s an immersing experience to be able to observe closely without actually being there (Fox 2017). There’s something about simply observing that gives me, as an audience, a sense of control of what is and is not truth. There’s no need for narration or interviews in this film because there really isn’t an argument to be made. I think that the beauty in that is the fact that we can think and feel whatever, not to be told what to do.

I would like to incorporate the same concept in my own project. I think it’ll be great to include an observational mode in my project, because i think that it would give an element of rawness and truth. However it won’t be used alone, but with a few other modes including essayistic and autobiographical. I hope my own work would move people the way this film did.

Lastly, Mother’s Day is a beautifully shot and put-together documentary. It was immersing without being patronising and definitely made me a bit emotional to see these unfortunate yet admirably strong kids. It made me question and wonder, but more so feel for those kids. It was pleasant and eye opening to watch this documentary and I’d highly recommend it to everyone.

Reference List:

Fox, B 2017, Documentary Media : History, Theory, Practice, Routledge, ProQuest Ebook Central database.