Clip description
When Connie took her first steps, she broke both her legs. The doctor informs Mummy Nora that Connie had osteogenesis imperfecta, commonly known as ‘chalky bones’ and is sometimes mistaken for rickets. Aunty Connie sits by a window and speaks about having to watch other children having an active life. She says at night-time her bones give her ‘merry hell’. When Connie was seven, the woman she had known as her mother, Mummy Nora, told her that she was not her real mother, and that Connie couldn’t call her mummy anymore.
Curator’s notes
The skillful blending of voice-over narration by Deborah Mailman reading from Connie’s life story told in her book When You Grow Up with live interview material of Connie speaking to camera, proves to be very provocative. We get to reminisce with Connie, as director Ivan Sen establishes a very intimate space between subject and audience.