Motherland, a film about grief and healing, is our Featured Movie

This powerful film, the debut documentary from director Jennifer Steinman, follows six American mothers, each grieving the loss of a child, as they travel to South Africa to try to find some positive meaning in the wake of their tragedies.

Motherland, the debut documentary from director Jennifer Steinman, follows the unique journey of six diverse American mothers, each grieving the death of a child, as they travel to South Africa to work as volunteers.  Steinman felt compelled to examine the specific grief of mothers who have lost children after witnessing her close friend lose her son in an automobile accident.  Driven by the theory that “giving is healing,” she decided to organize this volunteer trip to Africa, hoping that the opportunity to travel abroad and work with children in need could help these mothers find some positive meaning in the wake of their tragedies.

CommitmentNow.com:  Motherland is a close look at the complexities of loss, grief and healing.  It follows six American women who have each lost a child as they take a seventeen day trip to South Africa to work with African organizations dedicated to improving the lives of children.  This remarkable trip was your idea.  How did you come up with the idea for this film?

Jennifer Steinman:  One of the women in the film, Barbara, is a good friend of mine.  I’d known her and her son Jason for years, and when she lost Jason,  I watched her go through a years – long grieving process.  I was amazed that she was able to even get out of bed each morning while dealing with such intense grief.

Independent of this, a few years later, I was reading about Africa and planning on doing some kind of volunteer work there.  In the book I was reading, it said Africa was a “continent in mourning;" one where everyone has lost someone.

I have found that volunteering has helped me personally, and I thought maybe it could help Barbara.  The idea grew for testing my theory that giving could translate into healing.

CommitmentNow.com:  Your film notes that so many people in South Africa have experienced loss, and that their support of one another makes South Africa a “close” and “compassionate” nation.  How does the grief experienced by the six participants in your film compare to the way South African women grieve?

Jennifer:  The six women in Motherland all felt alone in their grief.  In our culture, there is a discomfort with grief.  People don’t know how to be with you when you tell them you’ve lost a child.  So the person who is experiencing the loss shuts down to save other people from feeling uncomfortable.  The people end up grieving at home, behind closed doors, alone.

We expected that the people in South Africa would be sad because they’ve experienced so much loss.  When we arrived we were surprised to find that everyone seemed happy.  We found that in South Africa, there is no stigma about grief.  Everyone has experienced loss, so they talk about it openly.  Everyone understands.  And in areas of extreme poverty, it is physically impossible to grieve alone since there are no bedroom doors to shut and hide behind.  There is no isolation.  They grieve and mourn together.  Feeling pain as a community helps ease their loads.

CommitmentNow.com:  The women on this trip found comfort in each other’s company, knowing that their experience of loss was shared.  Did you expect that when you planned this trip?

Jennifer:  I didn’t think much about it before we left.  I knew healing would occur as a result of the volunteer work the women were doing.  I didn’t count on the amount of healing that happened from these women being together as a group.  There was a lot of bonding and opening up to each other; a lot of comparing notes and telling stories.  It was hugely healing for them to be together.   That’s the real story.

CommitmentNow.com:  Each of the women in Motherland has experienced such intense tragedy, which your film did not shy away from.  Was Motherland a difficult film to make given this sadness?

Jennifer:  In some ways, but mostly I felt so honored that these women allowed me into their lives and let me tell their stories to the world.  It felt important that we were sharing their stories and helping people.

The purpose of Motherland is to open up an honest dialogue about grief in our culture and our country.

CommitmentNow.com:  One of the women in your film, Mary Helena, states that she used to describe herself as a mother, but as a result of the loss of her only child, she needs to be redefined.  Does it seem that part of healing from the loss of a child is this redefinition?

Jennifer:  Part of our individual identities is always tied into our relationships with other people, i.e., my husband’s wife, my mother’s daughter, my child’s mother.  Any time a person loses somebody they love, part of the grieving is the loss of identity that is tied into the relationship with the person who died.  Part of the grieving process is redefining yourself.

CommitmentNow.com:  Were you surprised by anything you learned while making Motherland?

Jennifer:  I went into this film with few expectations – I wanted to be open and to let the trip evolve.  My goal was to look at the role of volunteering in the healing process.  What surprised me most was how healing it was for these women to be together as a group, and that this almost surpassed the healing from working with the South African children.

CommitmentNow.com:  How did you get involved in making films?

Jennifer:  I studied film as an undergraduate, and then worked in editing for years.  I’ve always been passionate about documentaries.  I grew up in Berkley, California, and activism and art were part of my childhood.  I’ve always wanted to create positive and meaningful art, and to make a difference in the world in a creative way.

CommitmentNow.com:  What are you working on now?

Jennifer:  I just started a new film about an Irish ultra-marathoner who is attempting to be the oldest person to run the entire “Four Desert Series” races in a single year.  The Four Desert Series is a series of four 150 miles races through desserts in Chile, China, Antarctica and the Sahara Dessert.  There have only been two people who have ever run all four races in a single year.  I’m interested in what inspires someone to take on this kind of challenge.

To learn more about Motherland and Jennifer visit www.smashmedia.com and www.motherland-thefilm.com.  To learn more about Jennifer's latest project, visit www.daveandthedesert.com.