Family Portrait

Its a rare experience to have lived formative years on a commune and to be the daughter of its leaders. In the late 1960s my parents were at the centre of a Toronto-based communitarian movement of baby boomers. During a period of social and political re-imagining they engaged in a leftist Christian philosophy, being of service to others and sharing resources. In 1971 they co-purchased Midian Farm as a back-to-the-land social experiment, but its utopian vision eventually collapsed. The end of my parents marriage and the fall of the farm left a resounding residue, a hangover from hope. A canvas for seeking, of memory; piercing through time with new energy, FAMILY PORTRAIT is a process-driven personal essay documentary. I stitch together a visually immersive treasure trove of archives and dip between memory and current day reflections to memorialize a shared piece of history.