Camille Billops and James Hatch - Part One 18

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From the archive

This film was last shown on 24 August 2023

Part one of the Camille Billops and James Hatch retrospective brings together their ‘Family Trilogy’; films exploring the experiences of Billops’ relatives, consisting of intimate cross-generational conversations exploring how the family, or lack of, has shaped their lives.

Suzanne, Suzanne (26 minutes)
Finding Christa (55 minutes)
A String of Pearls (57 minutes)

Suzanne, Suzanne (1982)

A seminal work focusing on Billops' niece Suzanne Browning, as she discusses the abuse she had suffered at the hands of her father, and the effect this had on her path to substance abuse.

Finding Christa (1991)

In this extremely personal work, Billops explores why she gave up her daughter for adoption, through conversations with her now adult daughter Christa, and their extended family networks.

A String of Pearls (2002)

Billops, having explored the women in her family and the importance of female relationships, turns her focus to the men, focusing on multiple generations of men in her family and their experiences of urban violence, unemployment, and the absence of fathers in their lives.