Long ramble of late night thoughts incoming…
With the one week countdown officially on for
@pheasantshortfilm , I can absolutely say I am in the THICK of it. The height of pre production on an ambitious
@bfinetwork short film (period, animals, children, remote locations, you name it!), alongside the depths of motherhood with a non stop 3 year old and a breast feeding (and 2nd tooth emerging🫣) 6 month old.
I am so fortunate that my husband has a recently-updated-better-than-average paternity package which means he is 6.5 weeks through an 8 week allowance, but even with this the last month especially has just been plain old HARD.
I’m so excited to film with my old pal and fellow supermum
@claireheathermolloy next week. I’m chuffed to have a platform to demonstrate just how much filmmaking mums are capable of and I’m so proud of what we’ve already achieved whilst managing complicated childcare and carting around hungry babies. But in the same breath I am also painfully aware of the stretch these achievements have been on my whole family; pulled along for the ride of my creative endeavours, sometimes willingly, sometimes not. Big respect to those partners who are stepping up to allow us the option to pursue ambitions outside of motherhood - even though it’s time the sacrifice was shared, it’s still a blooming big sacrifice, whoever is making it.
I guess I’m just taking a minute, between movement order writing and a late night feed, to reflect on how hard it is to be a creatively ambitious working mother (especially in the demanding world of film production) and to recognise mine and my family’s efforts, successes and sacrifices in doing so in the last year. It’ll be interesting to weigh up what I would and wouldn’t (or could / couldn’t!) do again when I’m out the other side…..
Perhaps one day I’ll learn what “too much” means, but, somehow, I doubt it 😉
(Also a quick thank you to my amazing production team
@ellenbounds1 and
@sazasanches who are keeping me somewhat sane right now in the mayhem 🫶🏻)
