Recounts how the filmmaker and her sisters struggle to reach common ground while dealing with the sale of the family house and their mother’s move to an assisted living situation. Mixing observational footage, personal reflection, re-enactments with masks, and family photos, 10 short documentaries is an intimate exploration of familial relationships, childhood and the passage of time.

 

Awards

  • Third Place, Best Short Documentary, Athens Ohio International Film & Video Festival (2008)

 

Collections

  • The Journal of Short Film, Volume 22, 2011
  • Burchfield Penney Art Center

 

Screenings & broadcasts

  • 28. Kasseler DokFestival, Kassel, Germany 4/12
  • Buffalo Big Night, Western NY Bookarts Center, Buffalo, NY 11/11
  • Dallas 23rd Annual Video Fest 9/10
  • 2009 Flickerings @ Cornerstone Festival, Chicago, IL, 7/09
  • Detroit Shorts, Detroit, MI, 5/09
  • Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Missoula, MT, 2/09
  • Olean Public Library Visual Arts Program, Olean, NY, 1/09
  • Burchfield Penney Grand Opening, Buffalo, NY, 11/08-4/09
  • Scribe Video Center, Philadelphia, PA, 9/08
  • Reel NY, PBS Station WNET, New York, NY, 7/08
  • Carnegie Art Center, Tonawanda, NY, 5/08
  • Buffalo Women in the Arts, Buffalo State University, Buffalo, NY, 5/08
  • Reel 13, WNET’s internet showcase for independent films, New York, NY, 4/08
  • Athen’s Ohio Film and Video Festival, Athens, OH, 4/08
  • True Lives/False Lives @ Burchfield Penney, Buffalo, NY, 3/08
  • Kino05, Toronto, 3/08
  • Beyond/IN Western NY 07, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, 11/07 (work-in-progress)

 

“Using a gentle, subtle humor, Braemer examines her relationship to her mother, reminiscences of childhood, and the story of three daughters who struggle to find common ground as they help their mother transition from the family home to assisted care. While she treats her subjects with tenderness, she transcends the personal and provides us with an open narrative. As opposed to creating a closed text by explicating and historicizing a place with her reminiscences, we are offered an interior, in which we are allowed to perform own memories.” — Carolyn Tennant, media curator at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY

 

“In her own work, (Dorothea Braemer) has exhibited an uncanny ability to strike the right tone be it quizzical, ironic or heartfelt as she relates her film’s story in her own voice. Thoughts of Michael Moore, Morgan Spurloch or public radio’s “This American Life” may come to mind.” — Gretjen Clausing, program director, Scribe Video Center, Philadelphia, PA