Throughout this summer, Together Films Strategy team had the delight of working with BAFTA award-winning director Victoria Mapplebeck on her feature film, MOTHERBOARD. In this film, it chronicles Victoria who spent 20 years filming the joy, pain, and comedy of raising her son Jim alone.

At the age of 38, Victoria found herself single, pregnant and broke. Unable to combine motherhood with freelance directing, she was forced to abandon her career in TV, instead turning the camera on herself and her son, Jim. Victoria first began documenting their lives with her old DVCAM before shooting almost daily on five generations of smartphones, from the iPhone 6 to the iPhone 13. She recorded hundreds of hours of footage, capturing each twist and turn in Jim’s life, from the thumbs-up he gave during her first scan, to his first day at college.

MOTHERBOARD had its world premiere at CPH:DOX in March 2024 and was met with rave reviews from The Guardian and Screen Daily. That summer, Victoria joined us for a strategy lab in which we had an in-depth discussion on how to build an impact campaign going over everything from distribution, audience outreach and audience engagement, to partnership building, fundraising and digital marketing.

MOTHERBOARD is a celebration of messy lives, single parenthood, and proof that epic journeys can begin and end at home. Over two decades, Victoria captures a life where breast cancer, absent fathers and depression are part of the package, but where life still wins every time. And where everything will be fine as long as you don’t lose your sense of humour.

MOTHERBOARD will be having its UK Premiere at the London Film Festival this month.

The next showing is Saturday 19th October at Curzon Soho Cinema at 12:30pm – This event is currently sold out but check the BFI website for extra tickets!