Premieres Monday, Oct.13, 2025 at 11 p.m. / Stream with KPBS+
POV presents "A Mother Apart," a film that follows mother Staceyann Chin, who balances the struggle of being abandoned at a young age by her mother, and as a mother who is trying to change her family’s generational cycle of abandonment. The film celebrates Staceyann Chin's healing journey of becoming the mother she always needed, revealing that compassion and grace are possible—even when the past is marked by loss.
"A Mother Apart" centers on Staceyann Chin, a woman who embodies multiple complex identities—poet, activist, lesbian, Jamaican American, mother. But the most complicated of all is “daughter.”
Abandoned by her mother as a child, Staceyann has been seeking her out for decades, travelling the globe in a one-sided attempt to forge a meaningful bond with the woman who brought her into the world. Now, as the sole parent of nine-year-old Zuri, she wrestles with an all-consuming dilemma: how to mother a daughter when your own mother has been largely absent.
With key themes of forgiveness and grace, filmmaker Laurie Townshend profiles one woman’s inspired and deeply intentional parenting. "A Mother Apart" catches up with Staceyann as she picks up the trail of her elusive mother—a trail that leads to Brooklyn, Montreal, Germany, and, finally, back to her native Jamaica.
A healing journey spanning three generations, the film is punctuated with vivid animation, imagery from personal archives, and excerpts from Staceyann’s arresting live performances. Her singularly intersectional voice infuses "A Mother Apart" with deep compassion and commanding intelligence.
Filmmaker Quote:
“Before making this film, I thought I wanted to be a mom to my own biological child. What began as an exploration of the kind of mother I might be shifted as life unfolded. By the time we wrapped, I was caring for my ailing mother—and deeply grateful no thing and no one was pulling me away from that honour,” said director Laurie Townshend. “'A Mother Apart' gave me clarity about what care, patience, and grace can look like in loving our children, our aging parents, and ourselves. My hope is that audiences feel permission to embrace the ‘messiness of mothering’ in all its forms, and to discover grace—both for those who may have caused wounds and for themselves. That’s the gift of public media. It creates space for these necessary stories to be told, meeting people where they are and offering paths to deeper connection with themselves and others.”
Watch On Your Schedule: "A Mother Apart" will have its national broadcast premiere on POV Monday, Oct. 13, 2025 on PBS. It will stream on KPBS+ through Jan. 11, 2026.
Film Awards:
"A Mother Apart" made its world premiere at the 2024 Hot Docs Film Festival. The film was an official selection of the 2024 Inside Out Film and Video Festival, where it won the “Audience Award for Best Documentary Film,” “Best Canadian Feature,” and “Best First Feature” prizes. It was also an official selection of the Doc NYC (2024); March On Festival (2024); Pittsburgh LGBTQ+ Film Festival (2024); Blackstar Film Festival (2024); Newark LGBTQ Film Festival (2025); BFI Flare London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival (2025); and was a nominee for the Canadian Screen Awards (2025).
Raves include:
“Poet and activist Staceyann Chin’s personal study of what it means to be both a mother and a daughter.”
– Pat Mullen, POV Magazine
“Laure Townshend has brilliantly constructed an exploration of Chin’s intentional parenting.”– Elisabetta Bianchini, Yahoo News
“As much a film about one inspirational mother figure as it is about all those who mother or have been mothered.”– Sarah Toce, The Seattle Lesbian
Credits: A National Film Board of Canada, Oya Media Group co-production in association with the Documentary Channel. The director is Laurie Townshend. The producers are Alison Duke, Ngardy Conteh George, and Justine Pimlott. The consulting producer is Staceyann Chin. The writers are Laurie Townshend and Alison Duke. The directors of photography are Mrinal Desai, Ashley Iris Gill, and Gabriela Osio Vanden. The film is edited by Sonia Godding Togobo. Music is composed by Tom Third. Motion design is by Ramón Charles. The executive producers are Chanda Chevannes, Alison Duke, Ngardy Conteh George, Anita Lee, Erika Dilday and Chris White for America Documentary. Co-presented with Black Public Media (BPM).
