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Women's Studies • Sociology • Caregiving • Death, Dying, and Grieving • Jewish Studies • Mental Health • First-Person Filmmaking • First-Person Memoir and Storytelling • Documentary Production • American Studies • ParentingDate of Completion: 2020 | Run Time: 78 minutes | Language: English with English & Hebrew subtitles | Captions: Yes | Includes: Transcript | Director: Judith Helfand | Co-Director: David Cohen | Producers: Judith Helfand, Hilla Medalia & Julie Benello | Executive Producers: Regina K. Scully, Jenny Raskin, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Dan Cogan, Megan Gelstein, Susan Margolin, Sarah Cavanaugh, Nancy Blachman | Editors: Marina Katz & David Cohen | Director of Photography: Daniel Gold | Music: Paul Brill | Narration Writer: Judith Helfand & David Cohen | Supervising Sound Editor and Re-Recording Mixer: Benny Mouthon, CAS | Colorist: Joseph Mastantuono
Seven months after helping her terminally ill mother have a “good death” in home-hospice, filmmaker Judith Helfand becomes a “new old” single mother at 50. Overnight, she’s pushed to deal with her stuff: 63 boxes of her parent’s heirlooms overwhelming her office-turned-future-baby’s room, the weight her mother had begged her to lose, and the reality of being a half century older than her daughter. Told in the first person, in deep consultation with the past – as in 25 years of family footage – LOVE & STUFF explores the transformative power of parenting, our complex and very emotional attachment to stuff, and what it is we really need to leave our children.
In LOVE & STUFF, Helfand continues the journey she began two decades ago with her seminal film HEALTHY BABY GIRL (Sundance; POV; Peabody 1997), which was followed by the 2002 Sundance award-winning sequel BLUE VINYL and the short epilogue EK VELT (2004). Through these films Helfand established a voice that is deeply personal, darkly funny and ultimately reflects the universal power of love and family.
FESTIVALS
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
Spotlight Documentary Film Awards
Moscow Jewish Film Festival, Russia
The Holidays 365 International Film Festival
Documentary Edge International Film Festival, New Zealand
Maine Jewish Film Festival
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Docudays, Ukraine
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New York Jewish Film Festival
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