{"id":18523,"date":"2019-05-09T15:36:18","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T23:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=blog&p=18523"},"modified":"2019-09-30T15:44:07","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T23:44:07","slug":"motherhood-the-universal-story-in-films","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/motherhood-the-universal-story-in-films\/","title":{"rendered":"Motherhood: The Universal Story, in Films"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2028Motherhood is universal \u2013 none of us would be here without our moms. For some, that relationship is loving and supportive; for others, it’s fraught with complications. Especially if Mom is famous or trying to change the world. Or both.<\/span><\/p>\n

These filmmakers examine what it means to be a mother, a daughter, and a woman in a not always kind world.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Sama <\/i><\/b><\/a>(2019)\u2028<\/span>
\nDirected by Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2028\u2028For five years, journalist Waad Al-Kateab filmed what she saw happening every day in her home city of Aleppo, Syria. From the first heady, hopeful days of the revolution to the unspeakable horrors of bombings and shattered, bloodied bodies, her camera captures everything without blinking. She dedicates the film to her daughter, Sama, and questions whether staying and fighting for freedom is the right thing to do. Her husband, Hamza, is a doctor and is just as dedicated to staying and saving lives as she is in documenting the regime’s brutality. It’s a wrenching, tough watch, but one that also captures what joy, humor and hope can be found in the midst of such devastation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The film debuted at SXSW, where it won Best Documentary. It also won a jury prize at Canada’s Hot Docs festival. A broadcast version will premiere on PBS’s FRONTLINE<\/em><\/a> later this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

RBG<\/i><\/b> (2018)<\/span>
\nDirected by Julie Cohen and Betsy West<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2028While she was arguing landmark equal rights cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court she would eventually join, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was also raising two children. Some nights, she admits in this Oscar-nominated documentary, she’d only get about two hours of sleep. In one scene, her husband, Martin (who passed away in 2010), admits he still has to tell his workaholic wife to go to bed and to eat something. \u2028<\/span><\/p>\n

We meet her children, Jane and James, in the documentary, and it’s worth noting that both their careers are inspired by their groundbreaking mother (who loves opera as much as she loves the law): Jane also studied law at Harvard, and is now an expert on copyright law and a professor at Columbia Law School. And her daughter, Clara Spera, graduated from Harvard Law School in 2017. James founded Cedille Records, a classic music label in 1989. In 2009, he was named Chicagoan of the Year by the Chicago Tribune<\/em> for his work championing the city’s musicians. (Source: Refinery29<\/a><\/span>)<\/span><\/p>\n