Her Head in Films

In this episode, I talk about two powerful documentaries from the Montreal International Documentary Festival. The first film is Tasha Hubbard's "Birth of a Family," which is about four siblings--Betty Ann, Ben, Esther, and Rosalie--who meet for the first time, 50 years after they were taken away from their mother, Mary Jane, during the Sixties Scoop in Canada. The Sixties Scoop was a program that took First Nations children and put them in foster care or with white families. "Birth of a Family" explores how the four siblings cope with the past and create a new future together.

The second film is Kalina Bertin's "Manic," a personal film that explores both the complicated life of Bertin's father and the struggles of her siblings, Felicia and Sean, who have manic depression. Bertin's film is a raw and unflinching look at mental illness and how the ghosts of the past haunt the present.

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Original artwork by Dhiyanah Hassan

Full show notes

• Festival Scope website