With Mum at the Monastery

With Mum at the Monastery (2018). A mother and daughter with a painful past go to a monastery in Thailand together. Will the 26 days of silence filled with strict meditation help them to make peace with their past?

With Mum at the Monastery is part of the short documentary collection Roots, which joined six personal and diverse stories about womanhood. Watch another documentary from the same collection from here and here.

With Mum at the Monastery is a film about letting go, healing. You are currently working on a full-length documentary Smoke Sauna Sisterhood which in its way is also a film about liberation. Which topics fascinate you as a documentary filmmaker?

When directing, I follow my intuition, social nerve. The story and characters have to inspire me. I set myself a goal to test myself – for example, go to a monastery and be silent for 26 days. I believe that art can be one form of activism, touch hearts and help people get closer to themselves. On a personal level, art has helped me a lot in life.
Documentary filmmaking offers so many creative opportunities to tell a story, to introduce some aspects of the world. The script is only a starting point from which a journey begins. From the director’s perspective, it means you are on discovery until the end of the film. This kind of freedom is very compelling for me.

Anna Hints is an Estonian film director, scriptwriter and composer. She has directed several internationally acclaimed short films. So far, her most renown film is a short fiction Ice which has participated in more than 90 film festivals.

Contact:

annahints@gmail.com