Mothers & Daughters (2008 film)

Mothers and Daughters is a Canadian comedy-drama film, directed by Carl Bessai and released in 2008.[1]

The film, an exploration of mother-daughter relationships, centres on a group of women in Vancouver. Micki (Babz Chula) is a romance novelist who has tried to relate to her daughter Rebecca (Camille Sullivan) as a friend and peer rather than as a mother; Brenda (Gabrielle Rose) is a woman whose relationship with her daughter Kate (Tiffany Lyndall-Knight) is tested when her husband leaves her for another woman; Celine (Tantoo Cardinal) is a single house painter with no children, who has the opportunity to indulge her maternal instincts when her young client Cynthia (Tinsel Korey) needs assistance with her pregnancy.[2] The characters and dialogue were developed by the actresses through an improvisational process.[3]

At the 2008 Vancouver International Film Festival, the film won the audience award for Most Popular Canadian Film.[4] Rose received a Genie Award nomination for Best Actress at the 30th Genie Awards.[5]

Bessai went on to make two more films, Fathers & Sons (2010) and Sisters & Brothers (2011), that used a similar process and structure to explore family dynamics.