Seven months after helping her terminally ill mother have a “good death” in home-hospice, filmmaker Judith Helfand becomes a “new old” single mother at 50. Overnight, she’s pushed to deal with her “stuff”: 63 does of her parent’s heirlooms overwhelming her office-turned-future-baby’s room, the weight of her mother had begged her to lose, and the reality of being a half century older than her daughter. Told in the first person, in deep consultation with the past — as in 25 year of family footage — LOVE & STUFF explores the transformative power of parenting, our complex and very emotional attachment to “stuff,” and what it is we really need to leave our children.
