All About My Mother

Yes, I love Almodovar and this title references his amazing film on the topic. But this film I am making is all about my mother, as well as photography, and where my family history meets the medium. Most of all, however, it's about my search to get to know more about who she was, and to bring her work back to life through a posthumous collaboration between us.

I started filming last week in New York. I set up a camera, and though it was awkward at first, I talked about why I was making this film and what I hoped it would do for my mother's memory. I'm used to being behind the camera, not in front of it, but after telling my story to many friends and family I realized through their feedback that it was the personal aspect of this story that people wanted to know about, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Yesterday, with a film crew of 5, consisting of Colleen Keough, who assisted me and the crew, Rodolphe Seraphine, DoP, Sophie Shaw, DoP, and Marie Clautilde, sound engineer, we launched the film production in Paris with a day of shooting at the home of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Martine Franck. Besides getting stuck in a hot, tiny elevator for what seemed like an hour (it was 5 minutes) and having to silence sawing construction workers in the hallway, the shoot went fairly smoothly and my interview with Franck was enjoyable and interesting.

It is a relief to have the first big shoot down, and when I return to New York I will begin to plan the next few shoots and production plan for this project.