You Be Mother
Using domestic objects the film looks at woman's struggle to free herself from an imposed role in a society that feeds her psychic reality. The traditional role of the woman as provider, giver and container of milk and child, like a vessel empties itself. It is an expression of the complexities involved in the process of breaking from sexual and familial stereotypical role and behaviour patterns. Portraits function to produce fixity of identity. 'Hold still, we're going to do your portrait'. The super-imposition endeavours to cut through such stereotypical imagery. The psychical relationship between self and other, body and object, live and inanimate are expressive of the uncanny and its ambivalent relationship with the familiar/family. The relationship between the objects on the table locates the constructed identity of each object, making parallels with human subjectivity.
Description source: Cinenova Catalogue (1994). Edited by Kate Norrish. Editorial committee: Elaine Burrows, Liane Harris, Helen de Witt
