Together queer filmmakers Jen Ranin and Rivkah Beth Medow founded Frankly Speaking Films in 2020 to produce media that centers strong LGBTQ+ women and non-binary people to increase visibility and spark change. The first documentary that they co-directed was the award-winning Ahead of The Curve on Ranin’s wife Frances Steven who founded Curve Magazine, the best-selling lesbian magazine of all time.
As good as it was (here is Queerguru’s review ) it still didn’t prepare us for the sheer power of their next film ‘Holding Moses‘ the story of a lesbian single mother learning to cope with her severely disabled son. It’s a highly emotional story that is fraught with potential melodrama, yet somehow these two filmmakers gave us a very balanced view of this unusual tough parent/child relationship that frankly many of us could have not coped with and with such copious amounts of unfettered love.
This is the story of Broadway performer and attorney Randi Rader and her son Moses, who was born with a rare genetic disorder called Phelan-McDermid Syndrome, which impacts both his physical and intellectual systems and renders him profoundly disabled.
Rader is very frank when she talks about being confronted with an urgent need of how to take her relationship with Moses beyond that of a caregiver. She discovers that part of this will originate from Moses who may not be able to physically function, but he is so happy to share his love. It’s a simple thing but Rader confesses it’s powerful enough for her to want to make Moses an integral part of the family. (She already had one daughter and 4 years after Moses’s birth would have another daughter by insemination).
Kudos to the two filmmakers for avoiding any temptation to make this film an application for Sainthood for Rader. They showed that even with the exceptional level of care she gives Moses, Rader considered it as a real purpose in her life to provide. Almost an honor. Yes, of course, there were moments of self-doubt but they seemed to pass especially when she could occasionally escape for alone downtime.
It’s an empowering and uplifting story that reinforces our belief in the good of people. It’s just been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Short film so keep all your digits crossed, and equally important it should be compulsory viewing for anyone who challenges the rights of queer people to be parents.
PS Thanks to The New Yorker for the link below which is for the whole movie : it has a running time of 18 mins
Review : Roger Walker-Dack
Editor in Chief : Queerguru
Member of G.A.L.E.C.A. (Gay & Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association) and NLGJA The Association of LGBT
Journalists. and The Online Film Critics Society. Ex Contributung Editor The Gay Uk &Contributor Edge Media
Former CEO and Menswear Designer of Roger Dack Ltd in the UK
one of the hardest-working journalists in the business' Michael Goff of Towleroad
Labels: 2023, Academy Award Nominee, disabled son, family, Holding Moses
