Inspired by Philip Larkin’s poem ‘This be the Verse’, Your Mum and Dad is an exploration of the powerful dynamics of family relationships and the way they shape our lives.
After 17 years documenting one man's struggle to heal from a generational wound, Klaartje Quirijns turns the camera on herself to reveal her own family's devastating trauma. Kirkland Vaughans - one the few African-American Freudian therapists in the USA - guides us through the complex workings of the mind, showing how easily we can be ‘colonised’ by the behaviour of our parents. But in explaining these recurring patterns, he can't help but be drawn into exploring his own painful past as well.
Using a wealth of home movies and archival images, as well as taped therapy sessions, Your Mum and Dad explores recurring behavioural themes and raises individual cases into a universal pattern of experience. These stories enter the minds of the viewers and provide a mirror with which they can see the pain and triumphs of their own lives.
This screening is followed by a recorded Q&A with director Klaartje Quirins.