Tanith Glynn-Maloney (L), who accepted the 2019 Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award on behalf of director Erica Glynn for the film She Who Must Be Loved, with Margaret Mead's granddaughter Sevanne Kassarjian (R).R. Mickens/© AMNH
Director Erica Glynn was recognized with the 2019 Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award on Sunday evening, October 20, for her film She Who Must Be Loved, which explores the life and career of her mother, Freda Glynn, a foundational figure in First Nations media in Australia. Film producer Tanith Glynn-Maloney, who is Freda Glynn’s granddaughter, accepted the award at Sunday’s 2019 Mead Awards Ceremony, the final day of the festival that included an encore screening of Glynn’s film.
She Who Must Be Loved draws on personal interviews with Glynn’s sometimes reticent mother to explore her trailblazing role as co-founder of the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) and Imparja TV. The film also attempts to unravel the mystery of Freda’s grandmother’s death, revealing mistreatment, child separation, and even massacre along the way.
“We feel like a member of the family as we grapple with the traumas of distant and recent history,” the 2019 film festival jurors stated in their announcement of the selection. “At its heart is a fabulously compelling main subject—witty, thoughtful, and true to her ideals.”
Director Mari Gulbiani received a Margaret Mead Film Festival Special Mention for Before Father Gets Back (Sanam mama dabrundeba), a remarkable look inside the daily lives of the families of ISIS fighters in the Republic of Georgia, some of it filmed by two daughters of jihadists.
“The girls’ relationship with each other and their families reveal a window to the kind of trauma experienced by communities impacted by war and religious radicalization,” the jurors said. “The film is both grounded and buoyed by the indelible portrait of a friendship among two girls at the precipice of womanhood.”
Glynn and Gulbiani were selected from among 16 contenders by a jury of film professionals Juliane Dressner, Julie Goldman, and Christina D. King, Sundance Institute’s Kamal Sinclair, and artist-anthropologist J.P. Sniadecki.