A PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY
International Premiere
Feature documentary Screening at www.hotdocs.ca Hot Docs International Documentary Festival
RUN TIME: 87 minutes
RELEASE: 2024
DIRECTOR/WRITER: Rachel Elizabeth Seed
Writer/Director Rachel Seed declares that she has been surrounded by cameras her whole life so it made perfect sense for her to make a documentary that examines her Journalist mother's illustrious career 30 years after her passing. Rachel's mother Sheila Turner-Seed was a world-renowned Journalist who broke the mold of what Journalists were. Sheila passed away from a brain aneurysm when Rachel was 18 months old. Rachel doesn't have memories of her mother and having only grown up with her father raising her she began the arduous task of going through her mother's extensive archives to find out who her mother was. She looked through her photographs, read her articles, and found videotapes of the many interviews she did with acclaimed photographers.
The video archives allowed Rachel to see her mother's movements and hear her voice, something she had no memory of because of the loss at such a young age.
Rachel got to spend time with her mother's friends, colleagues, and mentors and really got a sense of what she accomplished and her personality.
I don't think Rachel expected to learn about herself in the process. She found footage of her mother with her as a baby and toddler that brought her to tears.
She also found out some secrets. Did she really see everything her mother, was or just the illusion that was projected on film.
A very heartfelt, visual, and historical film are all encompassed in this documentary.
It flows like a dream that glimmers and fades.
I connected to this film because of my lifelong love of photography and documenting all kinds of things in life.
There's one more screening at Hot Docs on May 5th, 2024 if you have a chance to see it.
