October 24-26, 2008
York University, Toronto, Canada
Association for Research on Mothering (ARM) 12th Annual Conference
Mothering, Violence, Militarism, War,
and Social Justice

During the ARM conference in Toronto, I will be presenting my most recent documentary film together with a paper:
BREAKING THE BOUGH: MOTHERS AND THEIR CHILDREN FALL FIRST.

My remarks combine clips from my Emmy Award winning documentary WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS, which shows the harm done to children whose mothers are imprisoned for non-violent, drug-related crimes in Missouri. As one grandfather notes in the film: “When you send a mother to jail, you sentence a whole family.”

My presentation will focus on the mothers and their children who find themselves enmeshed in the “war-on-drugs” in the USA – young girls and boys who find themselves virtually orphaned. Like civilians in any war zone, it is the children who are most deprived of educational continuity, the intimate sense of family stability, a sense of ‘normalcy’ in a larger social framework.

My film WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS (2001) can be obtained through:

Filmakers Library
124 East 40th Street
New York, NY 10016
W: 212-808-4980
www.filmakers.com