Cirrus@Austlit

'A personal essay documentary about the tangled bonds, secret histories and unspoken traumas of family life, that stretches from New Zealand to the Australian suburbs. It is an exploration of early childhood and the “silences” of the past that resonate in the present. It draws upon a wealth of photographs, letters, oral histories, documentary footage and clips from the filmmaker’s previous work. It unfolds a mother’s story of lost opportunities, lost love and grief; a father’s story of work, mental illness and war; and a daughter’s story of trying to piece together a more complex picture of the confusing ties of love, loss and kinship between a mother and daughter.'

Source: As If Productions.

A film about memory, the narrative relates a young woman's return, after many years, to her family's weather-beaten home on the shores of Botany Bay. With the recent death of her mother creating additional resonance, the woman's personal memories are collapsed into collective ones. The film is also the story of the house, the land, and two families (one white, one Aboriginal) who both live in the shadow of the past.