Top 20 Audience Favourite
Staceyann Chin is a poet, writer and LGBTQ+ activist who commands a room effortlessly with her hard-hitting poetry and spoken word that unapologetically centres around her politics. But the journey to finding her voice and activism was a tumultuous one, marked profoundly by her mother’s absence. Prompted by a recent discovery of unopened childhood letters addressed to her mother, Hazel, Chin begins an investigation into the past of a woman whose absence has shaped her poetry, politics, and relationship with her own daughter, Zuri.
As she uncovers shocking revelations about Hazel’s past, Chin goes into a web of dismay around her mother’s choices, constantly balancing the pain she still carries as Hazel’s wounded child, and the joy she has being Zuri’s mother. Excerpts from the mother-daughter duo’s popular web series punctuate intimate vérité snapshots of Chin’s unconventional approach to raising her child. A remarkable story of healing and forgiveness that speaks poignantly to the universal and core complexities of motherhood.
Distributor: NFB