MAVERICK MOTHER

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Running Time
52mins @ 25 fps

Delivery Gauge           
HDCam

Shooting Guage           
DVCam, HDCam, Super 8mm, Super 16mm

Sound           
Dolby Stereo

Screen Ratio           
16:9 FHA

MAVERICK MOTHER –  VISUAL STYLE

In a similar vein to Janet Merewether’s previous documentary Jabe Babe – A Heightened Life, MAVERICK MOTHER interweaves observational digital video footage with visually stylised and often ironic studio tableaux and archival footage to create an original hybrid aesthetic. The fictional sequences integrate set and costume design with digital composited green screen effects in the construction of dramatic, colour-saturated subjective and imaginary worlds.

Janet performs in various ways in the documentary. In the video diaries the camera becomes a companion, a site for confessional monologue, a witness to events and a tool to prompt social interaction and communication. In the studio Janet performs multiple roles which include the perfect housewife, the Madonna, the lactating professional working woman, the ‘father’, and the chain-smoking white trash breeder.

MAVERICK MOTHER constructs the wild visions, bizarre cleaning habits and vivid dreams of the pregnant woman. The documentary is full of contrasts, ranging from tableaux of angelic babies to observational footage of the realities of motherhood such as the brown mess of the nappy.
The fantasies and realities of motherhood are exposed in surreal glory and banal detail.

The horror genre is based on men’s fear and awe of childbirth and society’s perception of woman’s blood being the source of utter abjection. Women are seen to have threatening animalistic functions in their desire to reproduce, as explored by David Cronenberg in films such as The Brood. MAVERICK MOTHER, in examining the apprehension and fear around birth, reconstructs several pastiches of the horror film in a postmodern reworking of the genre.

The studio sequences also reference a range of film genres, such as 70s porn and romance. Several sequence are informed by renaissance art and photomontage traditions, such as the image of the lactating woman, the Madonna and child and the breastfeeding mother. This eclectic range of visual references broadens the film from the personal, to the universal, to the historical, as well as posing the question 'Is it possible for a woman to be a working creative artist and a mother?'

MAVERICK MOTHER aims to extend conventional documentary form through the innovative treatment of design and performance. By utilising an autobiographical perspective, the director seeks to explore the universal subjects of the desire for children, the role of the mother and the past and future structures of the family. As the title implies, the documentary explores the life of a maverick mother who is also a maverick filmmaker.  

 

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