For Memories' Sake

In this first-person documentary, director Ashley Maynor trains her lens on her grandmother, a Tennessee homemaker with a rich inner life. A mother of nine, Angela Singer grew up outside Nashville, picking up photography some 35 years ago. Since that time, she's taken about 150,000 pictures—an average of 12 a day. Says Singer, “The word photographer means professional to me, and I don't think I'm anything like that”; yet she admits she feels lost without her camera and takes it everywhere, which amuses her surviving kids (her son David was murdered in 1996). Maynor herself picked up the picture-snapping habit as a child, and becomes convinced that her grandmother's photos should be seen, so she starts organizing, preserving, and preparing them for exhibition. In the process, Singer's videotapes are examined, including material concerning David, as well as Singer's late husband, a heavy drinker (as Maynor makes clear, Singer never shied away from anything dark or disturbing). Singer's other interests—which include professional wrestling, Christian iconography, and Native American imagery—also feature in her work. DVD extras include four slide shows and two commentary tracks: one with Dr. David Wharton, of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi; the other with Maynor, Singer, and producer Paul Harrill. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)