Review of Look at Us Now, Mother! (2016) by Tamika L — 26 Jul 2016

I actually wrote the filmmaker and begged her to show her documentary "Look At Us Now, Mother" here in NYC, before her workshop on "How to Love A Critical Parent" after going on the website.

The film follows the daughter's journey to take action to try to understand and repair her volatile relationship with her mother. It is something I have struggled and am still struggling with my mother.

I found the film and film maker incredibly brave to tackle all the many aspects, warts and all, of this incredibly important relationship in ones life. I teared up several times, as mother and daughter were in therapy and examining the patterns and history in both their lives.

The use of home movies and diary passages really bring the point home that , as the mother says" there is no handbook for raising children". But also the "different" child, this time the creative one, can be critiqued and bullied by the whole family.

The trauma lasts until adulthood and can affect other relationships. Our mother's generation were very secretive and many times we have no idea of the details of our own parents childhood. I believe this documentary should be seen everywhere, with mothers and daughters seeing it together, with a talk-back afterward.

Maybe if my mother, who lives 3,000 miles away,had been able to see the movie with me, we too could have started a healthy dialogue and my dream, having us go to therapy to repair the relationship before it's too late, would come true.

So many women ( and the men who love them) all over the world can benefit from seeing this movie.