Additional Case Studies:
Complaints
of a Dutiful Daughter
Dutiful Daughter
An image from the film
Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter
Deborah Hoffmann’s mother had already forgotten that her own husband had died when the dutiful daughter finally acknowledged that something more serious than simple aging was going on. This widely heralded, moving film started out as Hoffmann’s home-movie attempt to create visual memories of her mother, as she slowly slipped deeper into Alzheimer’s. It became a memoir that has moved into the hearts of many people faced with daunting care giving tasks of all kinds.
Hoffmann’s story is not just about her mother, or herself, but about the challenge of taking control in a rapidly changing relationship. By trial and error, as we learn from her wryly-told narrative, she figures out how to care and love the person her mother has become.
Filmmaker Deborah Hoffman with her mother
Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter has been embraced by a wide range of organizations dealing with aging, Alzheimer’s disease and care giving. Its broad acceptance, however, is not only because the film confronts the realities of these challenges frankly, but because it communicates with grace the love, compassion and respect with which the filmmaker and her mother reweave their shared story.