Who Does She Think She Is?

Producer-director Pamela Tanner Boll takes the title of her documentary from the 1988 film Camille Claudel, in which a man asks the main character, “Who do you think you are?” and Isabelle Adjani, who plays the French artist, responds, “I am Camille Claudel!” The filmmaker Boll profiles five mothers with careers in the arts, all of whom see little conflict between art and mothering, and who believe, if anything, that the two callings complement each other (relationships with their partners seem to present the greater challenge). Painter and sculptor Maye Torres and her three sons live in Carson, NM, where she recalls that a lot of people told her she was “selfish” to continue to pursue her passion, but her attempt to put her artistic endeavors on hold made her miserable, so she brought them back into her life, noting, “I stopped feeling guilty when I started seeing the work really develop, because then I knew I was really on to something and that I wasn't fooling myself.” Similarly, Janis Wunderlich, an Ohio mother of five, says she goes crazy when she can't find the time to work on her fairytale-inspired clay figures. The filmmaker also speaks with master frame drummer Layne Redmond, theater performer Angela Williams, painters Camille Musser and Mayumi Oda, and activist duo The Guerrilla Girls. Authors, professors, and museum directors add their observations, while clips from relevant films and news programs bolster the thesis that female artists, especially mothers, could use more support. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)