If you do this, I will call you by your first name instead of Mom, 2019

19:10, HD video, sound

Your film will not have a happy ending because my life doesn’t have one. Although, there’s no sad ending either.”

Built from recorded conversations between the filmmaker and her mother, the film examines a mother-daughter relationship shaped by alcoholism, separation, custody, shame, anger, and longing. The mother is heard but never seen. Her voice is paired with static images of her empty apartment and the objects she has left within it.

The separation between voice and image creates room for the contradictions between what is said, remembered, and visible. Neither participant controls the account completely. Instead of offering reconciliation or a definitive explanation, the film asks how a shared and painful family history can be spoken about by the people who experienced it differently.

Created as a Bachelor of Fine Arts graduation project, the work was exhibited in the Young Artists 2019 exhibition at Kunsthalle Helsinki.