Household (2013)

Overview

An extended refugee family from Somalia, an interracial same-sex couple, a single mother in a housing cooperative, and a mother of six who has fostered nearly 50 children in her lifetime... None of these families have ever met each other before, but at the invitation of a mutual friend and videomaker, that will soon change. To explore how his friends and neighbors are defining family for themselves today, Craig Saddlemire requested that four different households in his community allow him to document their routines and challenges. In addition to sharing their personal stories, members from each family volunteered to research and narrate the story of a different family in the project. Through food, finances, and sibling disputes, Household presents an ever-shifting perspective on the enduring bonds of kinship. It reveals what it means to be a family member by choice, by birth, and by circumstance.