La scomparsa di mia madre

Benedetta Barzini was a fashion icon in the 1960s and a muse to Warhol and Dalí. But she defied expectations: she became a journalist and academic, and a fierce critic of the misogyny endemic to her former industry. Now in her 70s, her distaste for the limelight has morphed into an existential crisis. She tells her son, director Beniamino Barrese, that she wants to “disappear.” Having filmed her since childhood, the director refuses to let his subject go. In a paradoxical act of love, he decides to make this portrait – a tribute to her liberation. The confrontation between mother and son, filmed and filmer, becomes, oddly, an attempt – as complicated as it is fascinating to make amends for the camera’s oppressive presence.

Presented in collaboration with The Italian Institute of Culture in Montreal

The Disappearance of my Mother