A mom to a child with severe disabilities shows their lives including their joys, difficulties, and advocacy to make his life better.
Directed by Harrison Buck, this short format documentary is one that gives unrestricted access to a family by way of the mom and son while they deal with their day to day lives that include working with the son’s disabilities. The film is direct and allows the mom, who the film is named after, takes center stage while talking about her son, his needs, how it has impacted the family, and so much more. This leads to an interesting short form documentary that should touch anyone watching it. The direction is simple here, letting the subject matter take the spotlight without any fluff or anything extra that could have distracted from the subject.
Cinematographer Matteo Moretti understood what the film needed here and just let the interviews and the real-life sequences take the lead and dictate the style. There isn’t much dramatic flair or particularly fancy filming here as the subject did not require it. There are some truly beautiful shots here and there, especially when filming on Sugar Bush mountain while skying, something that does really adds interest to the film. Somewhere the film could have used an extra pass is the editing. While the work by Billy Montross is not bad, some of the sequences run on a bit too long. While it’s good to give the subject room to breathe, the film comes off as having a pace that is a bit on the slow side and it can lose the attention here and there, something that can be fixed with a slightly more dynamic editing. While it doesn’t need to be edited like an action scene, the pacing feels off, so it leads to wondering how long is left here and there throughout the film.
While the subject of this documentary is interesting and the film should be seen by most, it is not a watch that most would be entertained by. The right audience will truly appreciate it and want to learn from it, but some folks will absolutely not be interested. The presentation is mostly cold, which doesn’t help, but it’s a good way to present this subject without falling into exploitation or sensationalism, which is not an easy task. Overall, it is an educational short documentary, and it does well at giving information to its audience.