An estimated 5 percent of children in the United States—1.5 million—lose one or both parents by age 15.
-Kliman, G. Childhood mourning: a taboo within a taboo. In: Perspectives on Bereavement
This film is dedicated to children whose parents die prematurely.
ANGELBIRD is the story of a woman who overcomes the devastating grief of losing her mother as a child.
Thirty years after her mother’s death, at 40 years old, she enters the perfect storm of her own mid-life crisis, and the Angelbird is born.
Risking failure and public humiliation, she follows the irrational inner voice and the incessant dream of becoming a street performer. She exchanges her possessions, house and career for a pair of wings and a one-way ticket to Berlin.
ANGELBIRD is a short form documentary–visual poem, departing from the woman’s earliest sense of childhood belonging, at the shores of Lake Michigan to the City of Angels where she became the Angelbird and took flight.
Written, performed and produced by Elizabeth Yochim
Directed by Loris Lai
Produced by Kate McCallum
Creative Consultant Anna Dusi
Elizabeth Yochim’s bird’s eye view of her childhood up until this very moment will resonate with all audiences as a story that recognizes the love for family, no matter the pain, no matter the struggle, no matter the challenge in a performance that enlightens and inspires on wings made to fly.
-Todd Felderstein, Director in TV/film and stage.
Elizabeth’s poetic vision, not bound by earth or gravity.
-Charles Bernstein, Composer of music for film and television.
“I have been dreaming about making this film since I first stepped onto the streets in 2013. I wanted to make a film about the places I have performed and also about the lush, magical landscape of Michigan, where my connection to nature began, and where I feel I most belong. Most of all, I hope that this film inspired others to find their own version of the ANGELBIRD and set themselves free.
It took me 30 years to accept my mother’s death, let go of what I had constructed to survive, risk stepping into the unknown to live my own life. The Angelbird gave me a sense of freedom, and it gave me a full sense of presence and availability of my mother and of myself that I had never known. When I am out on the street, she and I dance together, and she is present in every encounter I have with people about freedom and dreams.” – Elizabeth Yochim, the Angelbird.
Your gift is 100% tax deductible. Please Donate!
