#DaughterFail. 2020 Dir: krissy mahan, 6 min. USA
Synopsis: When a queer’s mother moves into a nursing home, revelations occur but COVID-19 thwarts a reunion.
Screenings:
2022 FilmPride – Brighton & Hove Pride LGBTQ+ Film Festival, Brighton, UK.
2022 QFlix Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA USA. Selected but the festival was cancelled
2022 Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest, London, UK.
2022, Splice Film Fest, Brooklyn, NY – Won Honorable Mention
2021 Women Over 50 Film Festival, Brighton, UK
2021 Burnt Video Art and Experimental Film, Montreal, Canada
2020 New Age Cinemas & Scripts, Mumbai, India
2020 The Film Collective, Philadelphia, PA.
2020 SQIFF The Scottish Queer International Film Festival, Centre For Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, Scotland.
2020 WIPE Amateur Film Festival, Flutgraben e.V., Berlin, Germany (postponed)
2020 qFlix Philly, Suzanne Roberts Theatre, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Director’s Statement: This is a true story, happening now. This film was made in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown, while I was not allowed to visit my mother. Deaths in nursing homes accounted for 40% of all COVID-19 related deaths in New Jersey, so waiting to find out if she survived the day was a nightmare (she has Parkinson’s and she has difficulty using a phone). #DaughterFail was the most difficult movie for me to make, but it also helped remind me of the love and humor Mom and I always shared. Eldercare is very difficult, and even more complicated because I am queer and gender-nonconforming, which made the staff at the nursing home distrust me. I titled this film #DaughterFail because I feel like I haven’t done a good job of protecting Mom, when actually the movie should be called #SystemFail, because it is the nursing home system (and all carceral facilities) that have been exposed as deadly and inhumane. So the film is bittersweet, and I hope that many queers doing eldercare will be able to relate. And yes, this is a true story, I did find Mom’s vibrator, and yes, I tried to get it back to her after much deliberation!