Kid on Hip, Camera in Hand

“The unrelenting demands of being a mother and the unforgiving demands of being an artist one could suppose might often collide and divide. At the same time, the filmmaker’s art seems particularly suited to a presentation of that shared perceptual encounter with the world, to the remembrances, the anticipations, and the fleeting moments of childhood – and of parenting. That the filmmakers/mothers represented here were able to integrate these aspects of their lives in fully resolved works is a triumph of life and art, leaving a record and expression of their experiences and insights that can reverberate with and enrich our own.” From foreword by Marylin Brakhage ----------------------- Experimental film, in opposition to mainstream Hollywood film, allows a subjective point of view that puts the personal voice center-stage. In the history of experimental film, there is a tradition to explore the autobiographical. Stan Brakhage, Jonas Mekas, Leighton Pierce, Jay Rosenblatt and many other experimental male filmmakers have often explored their domestic lives as source material for their films. Their work is celebrated and recognized for being personal, poetic and introspective. Although there are a number of filmmakers who are fathers celebrating that perspective on film, women filmmakers tend to be more timid about approaching the point of view of motherhood in their work. The “Kid On Hip, Camera in Hand” program was compiled by two filmmaker/educators: Enie Vaisburd and Jennifer Hardacker. Both are filmmakers and mothers of young children, and motherhood informs the manner in which they create. They began researching other filmmakers who have the same approach and thus the program “Kid on Hip, Camera in Hand” was created. Hardacker and Vaisburd hope that “Kid on Hip, Camera in Hand” will make this point of view visible and celebrated in experimental film