I was working on a documentary/oral family history about my grandmother's life (in short, she was engaged at 12 in Iran, had an arranged marriage a few years later, spoke 4 languages, and in many ways is a very modern woman who now lives in the U.S.).
I have some film footage already because I was desperate to record whatever I could before Alzheimer's got the best of her. Now she's had a stroke, can barely speak, and the memory loss is greater. :( I'm heartbroken, and I've since given up on the project.
But now I'm thinking about how it would be a nice tribute to her. But what do I do now? I don't have enough footage to create my documentary. Do I change it to a documentary about my trying to make this film about my grandmother and what she is dealing with at the end of her life? Do I make it a documentary about the various Persian Jewish women in my life, with my grandmother being one of them? That seems kind of directionless and I'm still in love with the idea of focusing on her.
I'm worried about disrespecting her because in Persian culture you do not share your moments of weakness with the world. She had a lot of pride and I know her dignity was always important to her. So I think she would not want to be seen this way. On the other hand, she has always been interested in sharing what she knows and what she has lived.
1 comment:
my two cents as the camara-woman:
i still think this can be about her, while interviewing others, especially other women, in her life and getting information about her through them. think about our rich family uhhh, ehhhh, depth (ahem!) and what the possibilities would bring if you were to interview her daughter (our mom) and maybe one or two of her sons. maybe her sister??? or, a daughter in law...
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