What if you meticulously recorded your entire life as a single, working mother on your smartphone? Award winning filmmaker Victoria Mapplebeck did just that and has created a compelling document of what it means to raise a son without a father.
The lives of single mothers have been documented before – in films, series, podcasts. But rarely as thoroughly, nor as openly, as in Motherboard, which records motherhoodfrom the first heartbeat to the last day as a teenager.
At times, you get the impression that creator Victoria Mapplebeck’s life takes place entirely in front of and behind the camera: that’s how much you get to see of her daily adventures with her child. It has to do, of course, with her career as a freelance director, which she has to give up to provide for financial and emotional stability.
It starts in the womb – a beautifully constructed scene with son Jim as a mobile embryo with Laurie Anderson’s ‘O Superman’ playing in the background and a conversation between the mother and Jim as a young boy wanting to know how people come to exist. The film then meanders past defining moments in their shared lives – with flashbacks and reflections blended in.
Mapplebeck links these moments to each other with creative compilations of documented times gone by – photos, text messages, phone conversations and social media clips. The common thread is the many talks she has with her son at any age. Uninhibited conversations, because he is used to everything he does being caught on camera.
From a certain point in his adolescence, the story revolves around the missing father – a subject that continues to play an important role from then on. It causes clashes, but at the same time deepens the already close bondbetween mother and son.
With such a long-term project, drama cannot fail to arrive, and it presents itself in the form of a breast cancer diagnosis, an event that adds to the gravity of single parenthood. And one that shows how Jim has developed from a bright, playful, sensitive little boy into an empathetic and caring adolescent, wise beyond his years. The filmmaker does not spare herself: the camera pans along to examinations, doctor’s visits and emotional breakdowns.
Mapplebeck does not always have the lens focused on herself and her son – sometimes conversations play out against a backdrop of the view outside, adding to the impact of the words. The father is visible only in a heavily zoomed-in, pixelated old photograph.
Motherboard balances on that fine line between emotional exhibitionism and a fervent desire to debunk the myths of motherhood and to shine a light on a group in our society that bears a heavy responsibility: single, working mothers trying to keep their mini-families running in a world that is (still) not designed for these kinds of relationships. Thankfully, Mapplebeck stays on the right side of that line. Because she really knows how to choose her moments. Because she films herself and her son with humour and perspective. Because both she and her son dare to expose themselves emotionally without indulging in self-pity and navel-gazing.
Because the film naturally draws you into the recognisable story of a mother with doubts, fears and guilt. And because Mapplebeck has a great main character with her son Jim, who keeps you watching spellbound.
UK/2024/91 mins
Director, writer, DOP Victoria Mapplebeck
Editor Ollie Bauer, Victoria Mapplebeck
Executive producer Debbie Manners
Composer Jamie Perera
Sound Design John Wakefield
Sales Autlook Film Sales
