(Filmmaker, Irene Lusztig in person)

We are pleased to welcome the filmmaker Irene Lusztig (Santa Cruz) presenting her latest film, The Motherhood Archives. Archival montage, science fiction and homage to 1970s feminist filmmaking are woven together to form this haunting and lyrical essay film that excavates hidden histories of childbirth in the twentieth century. Assembling her extraordinary trove, including newly rediscovered Soviet and French childbirth material tracing the evolution of Lamaze, The Motherhood Archives inventively untangles the complex, sometimes surprising genealogies of maternal education. This extraordinary achievement illuminates our changing narratives of maternal success and failure while raising important questions about our social and historical constructions of motherhood.