Through a heartfelt voice message to a friend, a woman explores the profound neurological, physical and emotional transformations surrounding becoming a mother.
A candid voice message becomes the starting point for an intimate exploration of “matrescence”: the life-altering transition into motherhood. Interweaving personal reflections with scientific discoveries, the film reveals how pregnancy reshapes the brain, body, identity and even cellular memory. Through a hypnotizing blend of hand-crafted animation techniques, archival processes and analog film, it captures motherhood as an ongoing state of transformation rather than a singular event.
Matrescence is part of Alambic, the NFB French Animation Unit’s creative lab for emerging filmmakers.
Matrescence, Elizabeth Laferrière, provided by the National Film Board of Canada