Making Movies with Mom — Casey Smallwood

casey smallwood mom.png — It really all starts with her >>>

I watched my mom as I learned to be me throughout the years. I still do it. I know I am more than just a version of her - and experimenting with the depth of that relationship intrigues me.
There are so many moments that shape who we are and how we relate to the rest of the world.
Getting to know my mom through these video experiments was such an amazing and safe experience - one that has influenced how I work today.

After Breakfast, 2007

After Breakfast is my parents' reenactment of two scenes from the film Breakfast at Tiffany's for a large-format still camera.

While their photographs were being taken, a small handheld video camera captures the moments between poses. After Breakfast consists of two long shots that illustrate my parents' inner struggle with the expectations set by the original narrative. I act as photographer and mediator.

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Making Pretend, 2008

In 2005, my mom was approved to receive a cochlear ear implant. For the first time, she heard birds chirping. Watching my mom experience things for the first time was a magical and eye-opening experience for me, urging me to get to spend time with my mom’s experiences.

In this video, I was interested in how she might have translated a children's movie before her implant. I pulled several clips from the 1985 version of Alice in Wonderland, removed the audio, and asked my mother to reenact the scenes in my father's hunting den. The music that accompanies my mother's performance was written and played via Garage Band, by my untrained ear.

As Yourself or As Me, 2008

As Yourself or As Me shows the beginning stages of reversing authority in my process of working with my mother. Here, I employ my mother to make creative decisions in our collaborative process by asking her questions that will enable me to take on my mother's role in our previous videos.

Four Scenes for Mother, 2010

In 2008, I gave my mother a DVD and asked her to describe the sex scenes I had pulled for her from popular 90's movies (Ghost, Pretty Woman, Basic Instinct and Sliver). In 2010, I used that recording and her voice as a script; each scene was reenacted by the same two actors. The remade scenes are accompanied by the video of my mother interpreting the scenes from 2008. This video becomes a recording of a removed kind of directing experiment as well as a document that captures ephemeral memories between a mother and daughter.

Screened at Nightingale Cinema, Chicago, Bad Romance programming by Sara Holwerda

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Smallwood Satyricon, 2011

You’ll see.