- Welcome to POV .
I'm Pete Schwaba, host of PBS Wisconsin's Director's Cut .
Saying goodbye to a parent is never easy.
It can be even more difficult
when you're about to become a parent yourself
for the first time.
Such is the case for Judith Helfand,
the subject of tonight's film, Love & Stuff .
Not only is Helfand the subject of the film,
she just happens to be the director.
Judith Helfand is an award-winning documentarian
who made Love & Stuff to build a bridge from the grief
of losing her mother at 50 years old
to the joy of becoming a new old mom-- her words, not mine.
Calling Helfand an accomplished filmmaker
would be an understatement.
Three of her previous films premiered at Sundance
and were featured on POV and Independent Lens .
She's also Emmy nominated and won a Peabody Award in 1997
for her film Healthy Baby Girl .
But even more impressive-- at least to some Wisconsinites--
is that she has a connection to our state,
having taught at UW-Madison's Nelson Institute
for Environmental Studies.
Not all feature films start out as feature length films.
Initially, Helfand thought the film would be a series
of 10-minute shorts, first dealing with loss
and going through her mother's belongings
in her tiny New York apartment.
Then becoming a mother
and parenting her seven-year-old daughter Theodora
in the same apartment while dealing with COVID-19 lockdowns.
Helfand's intended series evolved into a short film,
which was featured on The New York Times Op-Doc series.
Making her film even more personal and open-booked,
Helfand brings 25 years of family footage
through home movies for our viewing pleasure.
In one of the scenes that made the final cut,
a teary-eyed Helfand asks her dying mother,
“How do you live without your mother?”
To which her mom responded, "You do.
You learn to."
For Helfand, it also helped
that she made another award-winning film.
Love & Stuff starts now on PBS Wisconsin,
your home for independent film.