FINDING CHRISTA

USA 1991 | Director, screenplay, production: Camille Billops, James Hatch | Camera: Dion Hatch, Shaun Wheeler | Editing: Paula Heredia | Sound: Ray McCutcheon | Colour | DCP | 55 min | english OV | Third World Newsreel

FINDING CHRISTA explores a radical decision made by artist and filmmaker Camille Billops: "I unmothered myself." She meets her daughter Christa again as an adult, 20 years after having given her up for adoption. Through interviews with friends and relatives, Billops sheds light on the dilemma of a single Black mother and artist. A manifesto for the alteration of traditional family models and relationships and for the democratisation of care work: "They need to really get that clear. Everybody ain’t mommy. Why they got to – every man ain’t no daddy. They don’t do that to men. They let men just go hi de hi, hi de ho, silver and go anyplace they want to. They walk away from the family, walk away from the dead mama, walk away from anything they want to, and they don’t necessarily bear the responsibility of it. But when mommy walks away, ooh. Now, who put those rules down, God the father?" (Camille Billops cited in Ryan Nhu: „Break Yourself a Home“, Feminist Media Histories, Vol. 11/1, 2025)

©Third World Newsreel
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Acronyms
amer. American English
b/w Black and white
OV Original version
SUB Subtitles
+SUB electronic live subtitling (below the image)
INT Intertitles
Countries
AT Austria
FRG Federal Republic of Germany (historic)
BLR Belarus
DE Germany
CAN Canada
GDR German Democratic Republic (historic)
EGY Egypt
FR France
GB Great Britain
URY Uruguay
BRA Brasil
SWE Sweden
UKR Ukraine
PL Poland
IDN Indonesia
PRT Portugal
HRV Croatia
ECU Ecuador
HUN Hungary
AUS Australia
IT Italy
MEX Mexico
IND India
Film presentation:
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