- Welcome to POV.
I'm Pete Schwaba, host of PBS Wisconsin's Director's Cut.
Tonight, we bring you a touching film
from a director who dives headfirst into her family's past
and unearths traumatic secrets
that were kept by her mother and grandmother
in the film The Taste of Mango.
The title comes from a story
that the director tells early in the film
about how her mother craved mangos when she was pregnant,
and how she inherited the craving from her mother.
The director draws a parallel with some of the darker things
she inherited from her ancestors.
The Taste of Mango
is about building relationships and healing,
all while unravelling past painful family secrets.
Director Chloe Abrahams says she learned
how her mother was abused by her alcoholic stepfather,
who the director believes most likely raped her mother
when she was just a young girl.
The family kept quiet,
giving the stepfather the benefit of the doubt,
causing even more dysfunction
by not wanting to confront painful truths.
Making the story almost incomprehensible
is the fact that the same man
walked Chloe's mother down the aisle at her wedding.
Chloe Abrahams felt that the best way
to deal with this horrible dysfunction
was by getting the story out.
In a recent interview, the director was asked
why she used the platform of a documentary film
to tell her family's story.
Abrahams says despite the trauma her mom experienced,
she is a captivating person wherever she goes
and lights up every room.
With that kind of a charismatic presence,
the director couldn't keep her off camera.
She was the perfect leading lady to tell the story.
The Taste of Mango is Abrahams' directorial documentary debut.
She is Sri Lankan born, but based out of London.
The film won the Audience Award for Best Documentary
at the BFI London Film Festival, and also added the BFI Award
for Best Debut Director of a Feature Documentary.
Pretty impressive,
considering she used a small digital video camera
and her smartphone to bring grit to a very personal story,
painting an imperfect and scarred family portrait
of pain and trauma through generations,
but also showing us that healing can happen
when generations come together and find love and understanding.
Abrahams says in addition to helping her own family heal,
she's hoping others in pain
who have had similar experiences will find the film.
Abrahams says what makes documentary films so special
is the raw and honest emotion you see in an audience,
which she says is so much more difficult to capture
with fiction films.
The Taste of Mango starts now on PBS Wisconsin,
your home for independent film.