Love & Stuff

  • USA
  • Documentary
  • 2020
  • 79 min.
  • Director(s): Judith Helfand
  • Producer(s): Judith Helfand, Hilla Medalia, Julie Parker Benello

Synopsis

Seven months after helping her terminally ill mother die in home-hospice, award winning filmmaker Judith Helfand becomes a “new old” single mother at 50. Overnight, she’s pushed to deal with her “stuff”: 63 boxes of her parents’ heirlooms overwhelming her office-turned-future-baby’s room, the weight her mother had begged her to lose, and the reality of being a half-century older than her daughter.
Told in the first person, in deep consultation with the past — as in 25 years of
family footage — LOVE & STUFF explores the transformative power of parenting, our complex and very emotional attachment to stuff, and what it is we really need to leave our children.

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Credits

Director(s)

Judith Helfand

Producer(s)

Judith Helfand, Hilla Medalia, Julie Parker Benello

Cinematography

Daniel Gold

Editor

Marina Katz, David Cohen

Original Music

Paul Brill

Original Language

English

Production Companies

Judith Helfand Productions, Medalia Productions, Secret Sauce Media

Co-Directed

David Cohen

Sound Designer

Benny Mouthon, CAS

Involved Funds

Artemis Rising Foundation, Impact Partners, Wavelength Productions

Festival Highlights

World Premiere - Hot Docs , Canada, Official Selection, 2020

US Premiere - Doc NYC, USA, MASTERS section, 2020

Hamptons Doc Film Festival, USA, Official Selection, 2020

Woods Hole Film Festival, USA, Official Selection, 2020

New York Jewish Film Festival, USA, 2021

Toronto Jewish Film Festival, USA, 2020

UK Jewish Film Festival, UK, 2020

Toronto Jewish Film Festival, Canada, 2020

Boston Jewish Film Festival, USA, 2020

Reviews

  • ""perfectly intertwined. Love and Stuff comes down to one word – motherhood"."
    - SCREEN FISH
  • ""Helfand established a voice that is deeply personal, darkly funny and ultimately reflects the universal power of love and family""
    - BROADWAYWORLD
  • ""insightful and sympathetic... Helfand does a very good job of making her story into something uplifting in an unexpected way" "
    - DISAPPOINTMENT MEDIA
  • ""hauntingly beautiful, at times one forgets her mother is dead""
    - SET THE BAR
  • ""an incredible narrator I couldn’t help but feel like I was sitting on the couch next to Judith" "
    - SCREEN FISH