Black lesbian poet and activist Staceyann Chin has long offered incisive observations on motherhood, identity, and more. A powerful new documentary shows how parenting her own daughter led her on a journey to reconnect with the mother who abandoned her and to find a path towards healing. See a trailer here.
When Chin was a young child in Jamaica, her mother left her. Chin lived with a series of guardians, seeing her mother Hazel occasionally, but mostly feeling her absence. After coming out and experiencing a homophobic sexual assault, Chin moved to New York City in order to live openly as a lesbian. She began the powerful stage performances for which she is best known, exploring queerness, injustice, trauma, and, after the birth of her daughter Zuri, parenthood.
Becoming a mother herself, however, underscored for Chin the need to interrupt the cycle of generational trauma that marked her relationship to her own mother. A Mother Apart follows Chin to Brooklyn, Montreal, Germany, and back to Jamaica as she seeks to find the woman who bore her, muses on what it means to be a mother, and begins to heal.
The film is a moving and thought-provoking look at the complexities and meanings of motherhood, seen through the lens of Chin’s experiences. Director Laurie Townshend skillfully weaves in conversations between Chin and daughter Zuri, blended with clips from Chin’s performances, the “Living Room Protest” videos she has done with Zuri, personal photos, and animations of memories and imaginings.
Chin had every reason to be angry at her mother—and she was—but she also shows us how she found a way, if not to forgiveness, at least to understanding and compassion. Visiting her mother now, Chin says, is “a kindness I can offer her. It’s also a kindness I can offer myself, to practice loving a thing who perhaps is unable to love you back.”
We see, however, that her relationship with Zuri, now almost 10, is much the opposite of her relationship to Hazel, and full of love, communication, and empowerment. (Bonus points if you spot the great picture book for all families and genders, What Makes a Baby, during the film.)
Townshend explained in a statement, “A Mother Apart gave me clarity about what care, patience, and grace can look like in loving our children, our aging parents, and ourselves. My hope is that audiences feel permission to embrace the ‘messiness of mothering’ in all its forms, and to discover grace—both for those who may have caused wounds and for themselves.”
Co-presented with Black Public Media (BPM), A Mother Apart had its national broadcast premiere yesterday on POV and will stream on PBS.org and the PBS App through January 11, 2026.
I encourage you all to watch it in full; in the meantime, here’s a trailer. (Content warning for the film, though not the trailer: description of homophobic harassment and sexual assault.)