Sophie Sartain's Mimi and Dona is a deeply personal documentary about mental illness, telling the story of her 92-year-old mother, Mimi, who continues to take care of her aunt, Dona, a 64-year-old woman who suffers from an intellectual disability. Given the fact that it's highly unlikely that Mimi will outlive her daughter, she faces the distinct problem of trying to find a new home for her Dona, someone who needs constant care. Heartfelt, poignant, and surprisingly humorous at times, Mimi and Dona takes a in-depth look at mental illness, the emotional dependency it creates, and the strain it can put on the family unit. The film captures the challenges many aging caregivers have, when their own offspring suffer from mental illness, detailing the effects it has not only on those suffering from mental disease, but the ripple effect it creates on generations to come. Sartain's film is straightforward but devastating at times, as the filmmaker juxtaposes Mimi and Dona's struggles with that of her own personal family life, one which has just seen her own son be diagnosed with autism while filming the documentary. The film knows there are no easy answers to such tragic stakes as mental illness, understanding that documenting Mimi and Dona's story in an intimate way is more than enough. The film spotlights the dependency that can be created, not only among the individual suffering from mental illness but the caregiver as well, who becomes accustomed to caring for, and sometimes enabling, the individual who needs more help than mere family can provide. I particularly found the honesty of the documentary refreshing as well, as Mimi and Dona as a film also speaks to the fear associated with the hereditary nature of such illnesses, as well as the alienation it can create in the family from those who merely can't deal with the burden of such tragedy. While the filmmaking itself is straight-forward and for the most part uninteresting, Sophie Sartain's Mimi and Dona is compelling in spite of its artistic shortcomings, being a tender, personal examination of the effect mental illness has on the family unit.
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June 2023
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