Hot Docs 2024 Review | A Mother Apart

A loving and progressively minded mother looks back on her fraught relationship to her own distant maternal figure in director Laurie Townshend’s enlightening, heartfelt, and empathetic A Mother Apart.

Jamaican-American poet, activist, and playwright Staceyann Chin has spent a considerable amount of time reflecting on the role her absentee mother, Hazel, had in informing her own life and upbringing. Chin, a queer woman of colour with a smart young daughter named Zuri, watched Hazel walk out of her life for good at the age of nine. Hazel went to Montreal, started a new family (including a sister Staceyann wants to forge a better relationship with), and then to Germany, where she currently resides today, getting by on government assistance. 

Staceyann makes it a point to always try to locate her mother, not only to keep a connection to her past, but because in spite of everything that happened, she genuinely cares about Hazel’s place in the family. Neither Townshend nor Chin are all that concerned with psychoanalyzing Hazel, merely presenting her as an independent woman who has to live with her choices and the guilt (or lack thereof) that comes along with them. Townshend builds a bridge from the unstable core relationship at the heart of A Mother Apart to a larger examination of Staceyann and how this void impacted her abilities as an artist, a sexual abuse survivor, a widow, and an LGBTQ rights advocate.

A Mother Apart profiles a woman who has learned from generational mistakes, but who holds them close in her heart with a great amount of worry and kindness. Staceyann and Hazel are fascinating documentary subjects to follow, and Townshend’s film speaks to the nature of loving someone who might not love you back in the same way. It’s frustrating and occasionally mournful, but always strong and empowering.

Friday, April 26, 2024 – 7:45 pm – Scotiabank 5

Sunday, April 28, 2024 – 11:15 am – TIFF Lightbox 2