WORLD PREMIER

We are pleased to announce Afterbirth will have its world premier at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival, taking place April 11th-25th.

Click HERE for screening info and tickets.

PRESS

“Twin Cities writer/director Nicole Brending describes her work as ‘hit-you-like-a-Mack-truck’ storytelling, which rings true with this confrontational documentary hybrid. It's about post-partum depression, inspired by Brending's own experiences (the movie opens with time-lapse images of her body throughout her pregnancy). Brending contrasts the difficulties of new motherhood with social media posts that make it look like a breeze. She also nods to "Rosemary's Baby," plays several versions of herself (one is a doll) and her mom, while googling mothers who kill their infants and visiting the St. Paul bridge where Naomi Gaines-Young threw herself and two children over the railing. It's a bold, take-no-prisoners work that demands we attend to a subject that's often ignored.” Chris Hewitt, Minneapolis Star Tribune

“…An unflinching look at postpartum depression and its devastating symptoms…it’s a horror film wrapped in a mommy vlog, with creepy dolls thrown in to boot. It’s a Blair Witch Project treatment of social media influencing you didn’t know you needed. If you don’t have kids, it’s a nice re-enforcement to continue on this sensible life path…Set to an anxious score by Jean-Olivier Begin and Francis Renaud-Legault, ‘Afterbirth’ is difficult to watch. Breaking up the moments where the filmmaker speaks directly to the camera and showing her go through her days in the midst of the pandemic, she also inserts footage of two doll characters, inspired by a mother who killed four of her infant children. She also dons a wig and portrays a mother character, in scenes that are some of the most funny in the film, and also offer insight into the character’s backstory. Brending films herself doom-scrolling infanticide topics, and even features a cameo with Naomi Gaines-Young, who served a 15 year sentence after throwing two of her young children over the Wabasha Street Bridge on the Fourth of July in 2003 while in a state of psychosis (only one survived). ‘I’m surprised more people don’t kill their kids,’ Brending remarks glibly at the end of the film. ‘The f-ed up part is that all of this is completely normal. That’s what they don’t tell you.’” Sheila Regan, Minnpost

SYNOPSIS

During postpartum, a filmmaker and new mom finds herself going down a dark path as she tries to sort out the complicated world of contemporary motherhood in this bold confrontation with the tacitly-accepted feel-good mommy norms that persist today. A docu-thriller inspired by stories of women who commit infanticide, Brending's creative exploration of the darker sides of modern motherhood shows how truly scary it can be, blending performance with reality in a way that reflects the porous experience of time and ones own emotions and consciousness in the early months with a newborn child. Featuring Naomi Gaines-Young who, in 2005, tried to kill herself and her infant twins by jumping off the Wabasha Street Bridge after suffering a psychotic break.

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