Annie Lloyd

Ceclia Condit

United States

Synopsis

Annie Lloyd is an unflinching valentine to Director Cecelia Condit’s mother in her last years and a portrayal of the courage and creativity of old age. Condit charts a course free of stereotypes, addressing the personal identity and the external expectations, which lie just beneath the surface of her mother’s everyday life. In Annie Lloyd, Condit focuses on a very sturdy present tense and a past that is forgiving. Working with her very old mother, they come together to form a new relationship that may only have been possible during her mother’s final years. In Annie Lloyd, mother and daughter spin stories into a dance of identities, weaving fluctuating tales of remembering and becoming.

REVIEW

The mother-daughter relationship is poignantly rendered in this documentary from video artist Cecelia Condit, who pays a twilight tribute to her infirm mother as she eloquently battles the ravages of time. Annie's speech is slowed and slurred (subtitles help the cause) and she's wheelchair-bound, yet her knack for doing artistic specialties is still apparent, such as pressing autumn leaves into a colorful treasure. Cecelia (who also narrates) mixes 16mm clips of a younger Annie at a younger age with footage of herself as she admires her mom's handiwork; the physical similarities between Annie and Cecelia suggest that this family's circle of life will continue unbroken. Get out your handkerchiefs.

-Bill DeLapp