(Rustin Thompson, Seattle, WA, 76 min)

Filmmaker in attendance!

My Mother was Here is a poignant, hard look into the complexities and challenges of familial relationships, growing older, and what loneliness really looks like when the world passes us by.

Documentary filmmaker Rustin Thompson documents the claustrophobic day-to-day life of Donna, an 84-year-old woman who lives alone in rural Washington State. Situated in a mobile home and house that are cluttered with junk, Donna exists on a school bus driver’s pension, social security, and Medicare. She’s never had a credit card, never voted, and never flown on an airplane. Quietly stubborn, she is estranged from all surviving members of her family, except for one–her son, the filmmaker–who rarely visits her. When her health begins to fail, she calls on him.

Thompson is also the author of Get Close: Lean Team Documentary Filmmaking, out on Oxford University Press.