Client: Channel 4

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Purpose: to celebrate the incredible work of midwives and in awe of childbirth

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About the film: This was our director, Emma Lazenby's second film, made 10 years after graduating, where her first film 'Something Missing' was about her Grandma's later years with Altzheimers.  

 

Mother of Many was to be Emma's last film before retraining to be a midwife. When the film won a BAFTA in 2010, Emma decided to start ForMed Films to make films to inform and ease worry about medical issues.

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Outcome: Mother of Many cuts between the life of the midwife and the journey of the baby, from the water breaking to starting life to the afterbirth. Animated using traditional drawn and painted under camera and After-effects, in inky rich colours – reds and blue separated for each story and merging at the climax. With contrast of the midwifes life – the calm control and gentle persuasion, and the hectic claustrophobic confusion of the baby.  It is a celebration of Emma's Mum, Pam, a midwife for 30 years.

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Feedback: “Visually uncomprising, dazzlingly executed, Mother Of Many is a genuine delight. Distinctly animated, a sort of 'cut out and keep' collage with clothes made of medical texts and vibrant colours, its unflinching depiction of the business of childbirth and its various subtleties within that context make it wonderful to watch
.” Midwife