woo presents Feel Good Films: I thank my mother for my hair

Welcome to woo's feel good films, a collection of films from young up and coming creatives and directors from around the globe. Feel Good Films is a set of shorts curated to uplift, elevate and cheer you’

This powerful short explores both the complexities and the bonds that make up a mother-daughter relationship. Alexis could barely talk when she was taken away from her family home placed into foster care as a child. Now 18, free to make her own choices and living with her grandmother, she endeavours to reconnect with her mother, Natasha. The film delves into this pivotal moment in the pair’s relationship, and the two begin to heal old wounds and forge a new path towards healing.

The documentary-style videography is both realistic and experimental. On the surface, we are invited to witness a reconciliation as the pair begin to list the things that they are grateful to the other for. But the intimate videography – focussing on the body language and physical interactions between mother and daughter – capture emotions far beyond words. With tactile and almost ASMR-like audio, interactions like Natasha lovingly brushing her daughter's hair, or Alexis comfortably resting her head on her mother's lap feel the more real. Despite the mother and daughter's disjointed past, these vulnerable moments caught on camera explore concepts of love and familial bond – emotions that, ultimately, can triumph in the face of pain and loss.

*I Thank My Mother For My Hair *is the brainchild of young filmmakers Susie Peng and Anna Dobos. The concept emerged from their friendship with Alexis, as well as a personal resonation with her experience. Prior to filming, the two directors gave Natasha and Alexis a set of questions to ask and answer each other, resulting in the emotional narration you hear throughout the short. Though their situation is unique, the creatives related to the complexity of their mother-daughter relationship, and hoped their film would ring true to other young people attempting to balance growing independence with family relations.