Truxal Library Special Topic Guide: No Place Like Home Learning Community

Intimate and warm, this portrayal of the film-maker's Japanese mother explores experiences, reflections and memories of family and life in Japan and 'barbaric England'. As the journey unfolds, we find ourselves in Japan for The Festival of The Dead where the emotional idiosyncrasies that lie behind this national cultural festival are revealed, and the importance of 'blood', 'land', and 'culture' in understanding 'home' and who we are in the world is put into question: what does it mean to have family? What does it mean to be at home?

Chris is released after serving 32 years for murder. Convicted shoplifter Gemma returns to sleeping rough in Swindon. Young offender Rhys's long-suffering mum meets him at the prison gates.

Award-winning filmmaker Chelsea McMullan takes audiences on a poetic journey through landscapes both real and emotional in My Prairie Home, an intimate portrait of transgender singer Rae Spoon. Neither a concert film nor a conventional biographical doc, this documentary-musical occupies a beautiful space in between. My Prairie Home is as bracingly personal and reflective as the songs of this acclaimed musician, who was born in Alberta and raised in a troubled and deeply religious home. McMullan tells Spoon's story through interviews, spoken performance and music, set to a backdrop of stunning images of the Canadian Prairies. As the camera captures Alberta's haunting landscapes from the windows of Greyhound buses and through the curtains of tiny motel rooms, McMullan immerses viewers in the indie musician's experiences and struggles, while Spoon's songs are brought to life via shows at truck-stop diners and imaginative staged visual interpretations. My Prairie Home is an unforgettable look at a unique Canadian artist.