Descendant ambient background
CinebyCineby
Descendant backdrop

Descendant

Descendant

2026•3m•Documentary

Lily's life hangs from 2 secure strings. Art. And her mum. What happens when one of these is threatened to be cut? Am I still a daughter, if I no longer have a mother? Made on one super 8 cartridge, no editing.

This film was made with £500, a super 8 camera and a lot of heartbreak. I’ve known my mum was dying for sometime now and been completely paralysed by it. Should I cry? No, because I’ll never stop. Do I try to fix it? No, because filmmakers can’t cure a terminal illness. Do I run away? No, one cannot abandon what is already within. Nothing led me through the pain to an answer. To a solution. But how can you live with a leaking heart? I realised I had to metabolise the grief through processing. So I picked up my camera and got to work. This film is the fruit of that process. It is a straight 8, meaning it was made with one roll of 8mm film, no editing. The sound design was completed separately, without ever seeing the digitalised film. Like grief it’s clunky in places, too clean in others and I wish I’d had longer. I wish we could always have longer.

Lily Blunsom-Washbrook · Director

Lily Blunsom-Washbrook · Writer

StatusReleased
Runtime3m
LanguageEN
Release DateMay 23, 2026
Budget$662

Actors

Lily Blunsom-Washbrook

Lily

Rebbecca Washbrook

Mother

Recommendations

Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds
As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
Stories We Tell
Being James Bond
Aquaman: Heroines of Atlantis
Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner
My Mom Jayne
Extremis
The Walking Dead: The Return
Casting By
The Curious Birth of Benjamin Button
Naqoyqatsi
Anna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me
Heart of a Dog
Feminists: What Were They Thinking?
The Irishman: In Conversation
Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi's Return
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio: Handcarved Cinema
Come See Me in the Good Light
Val

Similars

Land Without Bread
Code Name Lucy: Spies Against Nazis
Xavier
It's a Wonderful Day
Gonzalo Suárez: Sam Peckinpah, director salvaje
The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat
Come Worry with Us!
Monkey on a Stick
Prompt: Make a Documentary
The Hunters
The Big Swim
New Horizons
Familiar Tale
The Birds Changed Names And The World Turned Into Ice
Comala
THE QUEST: Everest VR
A.
Making Of Castelo
Tehran Is the Capital of Iran
The Milwaukee Cannibal