Toronto-based Laurie Townshend’s feature directorial debut A Mother Apart has won the Portrait Documentary Competition at this year’s Cleveland International Film Festival.

In its 49th year, the festival ran from March 27 to April 5 at the Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland, with the winners announced on the last day (April 5).

The CBC Documentary Channel original, which won a cash prize of US$10,000 or over CA$14,000 as part of its win, is a coproduction from OYA Media Group and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), produced in association with CBC’s Documentary Channel. The film debuted on CBC Gem and NFB on March 7.

The English and German-language film follows Jamaican-American poet and LGBTQ+ activist Staceyann Chin as she re-imagines the art of being a mother, having been abandoned by her own.

The film is produced by OYA Media Group co-founders Alison Duke and Ngardy Conteh George along with the NFB’s Justine Pimlott. Executive producers include Duke, Conteh George, NFB’s Chanda Chevannes and Anita Lee.

A Mother Apart made its world premiere at the 2024 Hot Docs Festival and was ranked the No. 3 Canadian feature documentary at the festival according to an audience poll. The film later screened at the 2024 Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival winning three awards: Best First Feature, Best Canadian Feature and the festival’s Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature.

The film received support from the NFB through the coproduction, the Canada Media Fund and Inside Out’s RE:Focus Fund along with federal and Ontario tax credits, Conteh George told Playback Daily.

Image courtesy of National Film Board of Canada