Parenthood, Family, Human Experience at the Annapolis Film Festival
The first event I attended at the Annapolis Film Festival was a panel on writing the human experience. Hollywood screenwriters discussed the differences between mediums and styles of writing. The small panel agreed on one idea: stories had to be real and authentic. Without a sense of authenticity, you lose the audience and your film has no appeal. The two films I watched authentically explored the challenges of parenting from two very different perspectives.
Burn Your Maps:
The premise is simple and hilarious; a young boy wakes up one day and decides he wants to be a Monogolian goat herder. He frantically makes a costume and make-shift goats out of toilet paper. Then, he unveils his dreams to his parents, grandmother, and sister at the school heritage day. His commitment is touching — he’s learned Mongolian, he guts one of is goats as Mongolian tradition dictates, and then says a prayer for the departed. But, the boy’s dream and his chosen name, Ganzareg, adds stress to the family dynamic.
The mother insists on supporting this phase, the father just wants his son to be normal and play baseball. The family is still grieving from losing a baby girl and their grief plays out in the drama over whether or not to let Wes/Ganzareg be himself. The movie changes when the father comes unglued. He rips his son’s paintings off the wall and trashes his goats. He forces his son to take off his Mongolian outfit. His mother is the great defender, imploring the husband to let Ganzareg pursue his dreams. So, the next morning, she takes her son to Mongolia to climb trees. The boy is elated and the self-described, lost mother begins to find herself, as she helps her son pursue his dreams. She smiles, she adopts a goat, she feels lust for a hot guy — she’s alive again.
After her husband sees a video of his son in Mongolia, he jets off to meet them. The Mongolian trip becomes a family journey in healing. The couple, who have been struggling, heal in Mongolia. They become better partners for each other, better parents for their children, and being to heal after loss.
Jackson:
The second film I saw was Jackson. It tells a different story about motherhood. The film tracks two women in Jackson, Mississippi — home of the state’s last abortion clinic.
April is a young mother of four, when she discovers she is pregnant with her fifth child at the start of the film. Her home is squalid, her mother shouts abuse at her for being pregnant again, as her young children sleep in the same bed.
April has considered abortion. During a motherhood counseling session at the Center for Pregnancy Choices, she discusses drinking Clorox to self-abort at 16. During her sonogram for her fifth child, she mentions the possibility of abortion. The white woman conducting the sonogram ignores her concern calling the child a blessing.
Down the street, the State’s last abortion clinic is in danger of being shut down. The state’s TRAP laws are becoming ever more threatening with the requirement that abortion clinics gain “admitting privileges” at neighboring hospitals.
Shannon, the abortion clinic administrator, shows the rejection letters from neighboring hospitals. Most of them state that the staff is being rejected not because of their credentials, but because of the type of health care they provide. The TRAP laws are fulfilling the Governor’s explicit promise to make Mississippi an abortion-free state.
When we see April again, tears stream down her face as she calls the hospital, informing them her contractions are now four minutes apart. An ambulance arrives to take April to the hospital, alone, to have her fifth child.
Shannon fights House Bill 1390 and wins a victory in court. She travels to DC to stand outside the Supreme Court as it hears a similar case from Texas.
April struggles to provide for her kids, working multiple jobs while caring for her children and getting her GED. She calls Barbara, the director of CPS, on her youngest child’s first birthday. She says she has no money for a party. Barbara brings a sheet cake and a pack n’play.
The final title card of the film reveals that April is pregnant with twins, her sixth and seventh child.
Final Thoughts:
In viewing these films back to back, it’s hard not to see the immense complexity of parenthood. In the first film, Alise struggles to effectively parent the children she chose. She has a devoted husband, a beautiful home, and is able not to work while she grieves.
On the other hand, April did not complete her high school degree. She is found, poor, and generally unprepared for motherhood. She is also alone with her children for much of the film. According to April, her children wouldn't even know their father if they saw him.
It’s also hard not to see race and class in these films. Burn Your Maps shows a white, upper middle class family struggling to overcome grief and support their living children.
In Jackson, April, Shannon, and most of the staff of the abortion clinic are black. The patients the abortion clinic sees are mostly black. Meanwhile, the Crisis Pregnancy Center is operated by predominately white women, who appear to be wealthier than their black and low-income clients.
The films are complementary. In Burn Your Maps, parenthood is a challenging journey even in the best circumstances. In Jackson, parenthood prevents April from achieving her dreams and her children live in squalid poverty. It’s hard to see a happy ending for April or any of her children. April feels that we all are not cut out for parenting. “We all are not perfect,” April says. Parenthood is something everyone should go into prepared for and they should be able to enthusiastically choose children.
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