Following the screening there will be a live Q&A with director Victoria Mapplebeck and producer Debbie Manners.
At the age of 38, Victoria Mapplebeck found herself single, pregnant and broke. Unable to combine motherhood with freelance directing, she was forced to abandon her career in TV, instead turning the camera on herself and her son, Jim.
Filmed over 20 years, Victoria has recorded hundreds of hours of footage, capturing each twist and turn in Jim’s life, from the thumbs-up he gave her during her first pregnancy scan to his first day at college.
MOTHERBOARD is a unique self-portrait charting the real-life comedy and roller coaster of solo parenting. Victoria captures a life where both she and Jim survive her breast cancer diagnosis, two generations of absent fathers and Jim’s rollercoaster teen years with a gallows sense of humour and an irrepressible ability to turn lemons into lemonade.
The film navigates the trials and traumas of unromanticized parenting, where chaos rules. We’re privy to the monumental bust ups when tempers fray and doors slam, as well as the pair’s closeness and camaraderie as Jim turns into a fiercely opinionated and funny young adult who suddenly towers over his mum.
Honest, funny and infinitely relatable, MOTHERBOARD is the antidote to the unrealistic expectations we have about motherhood, and a film for anyone who wants to see family life in all its unfiltered glory.
We're extremely excited to announce our long-in-the-making mini season: UNDERSEEN DAVID LEAN! Best known for his epics like Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, we instead wanted to focus on some of his delightful lesser screened, more class conscious earlier work. We'll be screening his Golden Bear winning Charles Laughton comedy HOBSON'S CHOICE, heart-breaking Claude Rains love triangle THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS, Katherine Hepburn's Venetian getaway in SUMMERTIME and his London-set (and Wembley visiting) wartime drama THIS HAPPY BREED. Tickets are just £10 with all Sunday screenings introduced by The Lexi's Co-Director (me!) and our final screening will feature a panel discussion with local historians.
