The story of Conversations Between Shifts unfolded in real time. Every word and image breathed significance, both in my mother’s life and the environment of my hometown. I accumulated over six hundred hours of visuals, voice memos, and field recordings. These artifacts formed an ebb and flow of eyewitness accounts and artful tone poems; the empathy and care my mother exuded juxtaposed an apathetic and immutable world.

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My time spent quartered away at home during the pandemic informed my approach to telling my mother’s story. With nothing to do but shoot and watch films, the documentary became a self-reflexive piece both about my mother’s experiences and my experience learning how to tell that story. My inspirations grew with the filmmakers I would slowly discover and love with time. I was heavily influenced by films like RaMell Ross’s Hale County, Josh Kriegman’s campaign doc Weiner, Jonathan Caouette’s Tarnation, Caveh Zahedi’s In the Bathtub of the World, and the hand-painted animated shorts of Stan Brakhage.

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Conversations Between Shifts articulates the emotions of Jeanette and first responders around the globe. It unveils my mother's spiritual truths and emotional realities during this historic moment. Upon returning to this piece, future generations will experience a glimpse of what it was like laboring and living through this crisis.