Birth/Mother, is very much a film that closes a the series of documentaries Kawase made about her grandmother. I had previously given a review about Katasumori/Hi Wa Katabuki/See Heaven, and will not talk about it too much here, although I must say that looking at them on the big screen had given me fresh perspectives about these works. Previously, I thought that Katasumori and Hi Wa Katabuki is very similar, I think it was after the screening at the JFF that I perhaps had a clearer understanding of their differences. Katasumori is a very on the surface exploration of Kawase’s relationship with her grandmother -  I do not mean this in a bad or superficial way. Contrary, I find this very sincere, it is afterall the first in the series, a consolidation of thoughts that came to her through the years, and a desire to visually establish these connections. Hi Wa Katabuki, on the other hand, is a film where Kawase looks hard for parent – child metaphors from things all around her. Whether it is between a big and small tomato, in her neighbors, simple things in life, she draws these metaphors poetically to reinforce in a subtle way, the universality of the parent – child relationship.

Mother/Child, on the other hand is both a sad and happy closure to the whole episode. The grandmother, whom the viewers so adored, passed away. Kawase (assuming she’s the cameraman), photographer the dead corpse of her grandmother, the face semi purplish green, almost decaying. It was heartbreaking even for me. Yet in the same film, we witnessed the birth of Kawase’s precious child, the second time I saw a real-life birth on screen – the first was in Stan Brakhage’s “Winter water baby moving”. Stylistically, Kawase had became much sharper than her previous documentaries; her older works have edits that are often based on the reel length of the 8mm film reels in her camera – she simply love to let it run out on screen. But in Mother/Child, the mix of video and film presents to her another perspective when it comes to editing, I feel it is more straight to the point, less “beating around the bush”. Even the manner in which she questions her grandmother about sensitive questions related to her childhood, she was harsh and sharp.

As a whole, I welcome the change, and I certainly feel that it is for the better, and hope that Naomi Kawase will continue making these very personal yet infinitely universal documentaries that reaches straight into the deepest reachest of human relationships and emotions.