In 2003, at NYU, for my second-year documentary project, I directed and presented a short film about my parents, with my mom in the central role, called “Housewife.” Many people liked it because it had access to real subjects, of course, who presented themselves in an open and honest way. The film was presented to the usual huge crowd of hundreds at the Cantor Center, as well as the usual highly distinguished faculty, including film industry greats, in our MFA screening room for evaluation.
Believe it or not, this short student project preceded all the famous ‘housewife’ tv shows by half a year to a year or more, and I checked: there was no popular media with ‘housewife’ in the title for forty years or so beforehand.
I am hoping to extend and transform the project. For now, here’s the opening video’d off my mini dv camera with iphone: