(phone ringing)
- [Dad] Hello?
- [Nathan] Hey. So, is Mom around?
- [Dad] No, no she's at temple now.
- [Nathan] I don't know, I've been thinking a lot about this...
I mean I really feel like I should do something
that involves her more.
- [Dad] What are you thinking of?
- [Nathan] I want to come up with Nicole
and I want to sit down and talk with you guys.
- [Dad] Alright, well, that'll be great.
- And the prophet came and said, "What are you doing?"
Like, "Act like Jews!"
No one's observing the Sabbath.
No one's keeping Kosher.
No one's living ethically.
You better do that!
So, that's what the prophets did,
they basically said to us, "What's wrong with you?"
(indistinct chatter)
All of these adults have never had the opportunity
of being bar or bat mitzvahed.
You're not the only one.
- Right. - Right?
- Yeah, no that's what's so interesting
about the group is how everyone is coming at it
from different levels and different points.
I like that.
Makes me feel comfortable
that, you know, I can fit in.
(turn signal ticking)
So, when did you realize it was a bat mitzvah class?
- [Nathan] About halfway through.
(laughter)
- You honestly didn't,
didn't I say to you it's a bat mitzvah class?
- [Nathan] I thought you said b'nai.
- Well that's for bar or bat. (giggling)
- [Nathan] (laughing) I don't know these things.
- Neither do I. (laughing)
- [Nathan] Do you like your life here?
- What's that, honey?
- [Nathan] Do you like your life here?
- I'm not gonna answer anything that'll incriminate me.
Do you think I like my life here?
- [Nathan] Well that's what I just asked you.
- I plead the what's it called?
What do you plead, the fifth?
- [Nathan] I don't know. (giggling)
Just what do you make of your life here?
- I don't know what to make of it.
Is that a good answer?
(turn signal ticking)
But, I didn't know what to make of it
in Arlington, or Lexington,
or Indiana, or Fresno.
So my life sort of took a lot of twists and turns
that I have no idea why.
But, um, not that I felt at home in Arlington
but that's where I gave birth to you
and had play groups and was actively engaged
in the community 'cause of school for you
and all my life as a mother there.
And, in Lexington, you lived with us for several years
so home is where your family is, I guess is how I feel.
And, I don't have any family here.
So, it's where I live.
(slow rhythmic theme music)
(indistinct chatter)
(people singing Happy Birthday)
- What did you say?
(indistinct chatter)
(crying)
Do you comb his hair a special way?
- (laughing) No!
(all laughing)
- I go like that. - He's always, yeah.
- It looks good like all crazy.
- I don't know I haven't combed his hair in so long
'cause he's usually yelling at me.
(laughing)
You're adorable.
(Nicole laughing)
(smooch)
- You said I looked tired before.
- Well I always check your eyes, come here.
(all laughing)
Even when he was inside he was kicking.
He gave me bruises.
I would cry, I would sit and cry.
- [Nicole] Nathan.
(all laughing)
- The cat has litter boxes on three floors.
(laughing)
And she's got water on the counter,
down there, in her room,
and a cup in the bathtub from Fresno.
A cup that. (laughing)
- [Nicole] Wow, what a queen of the house.
- And I know it's gonna seem crazy but this is her room
and the bed is just a decrepit bed
so it's not like she has her own bed and it's so great.
She doesn't know what to make of that camera.
And that's me when I was five.
- In fact, that picture was in her parents' stairway
up to the second floor.
And that photo is right here in our house.
These I took around the time I met her.
That actually on the back is inscribed to her
on the first birthday I probably celebrated with her
when she turned 20.
I always loved that shot.
- It's great, yeah.
- That's a great one.
That was shot, I think, on Long Island.
Here's shots of us together.
There's me photographing her.
I always loved this one, too of her and Bob Dylan together
in Indiana, in our apartment.
'Cause they look similar, don't they?
The eyes, the way they. (laughing)
- [Nathan] Do you feel like a different person, Mom?
- [Mom] Yes.
- [Dad] This was in Indiana.
That's earlier than the other one.
That's at our apartment in Indiana.
Married student housing.
Campus view house.
- Concrete walls.
- [Dad] Concrete walls.
- [Nathan] Did you ever see Mom dance?
- Of course I saw her dance.
I'm gonna show you the only film I ever really edited
and your mother was in it.
And I didn't even remember your mother being in it.
In fact, 'cause this is really only the second
or third time that I've seen this
since I made it in 1970.
And so when I watched this, when I took stuff out
a few days ago and looked at stuff,
I was like, blew my mind that your mother was in there.
(film projector whirring)
And there's Cindy.
I was into montage there.
This is all Battleship Potemkin material.
(film projector whirring)
Eyes.
Cindy's eye.
I love this, this is great.
This is her ear and I dissolved it into this piece
of crystal which was one of my parents' wedding gifts.
(Nathan laughing)
- [Mom] I bet your father brought that Buddha
back from Japan.
- [Dad] And then that's the light,
actually that orange light that's in the cat's room.
(film cracking)
- So basically Mom was your muse.
You photographed her, you filmed her.
- She, yeah, she was my subject
and I photographed her all the time
because, one hand, she was an amazing model
and I mean like she was just very easy to photograph.
- You've been directed by both your son and your husband.
- [Mom] Yes, by the masters.
(all laughing)
- [Nathan] And did you ever have,
you had aspirations to use them? (muffled)
- Well yes, I loved dance and I didn't have the talent
but I wanted to be a modern dancer
and I planned to go to
to school to be a dancer with my friend Marge.
(liquid splashing in jar)
- [Nicole] What happened with that?
- I had a kid.
(Mom and Nicole laughing)
- Do you think you would have pursued arts?
Like, you would have pursued the arts
if you hadn't had Eric when you were 16.
Would you have--
- I don't know, I mean, like... you know...
because I had Eric we moved.
And then I went to that performing arts camp
and the guy wouldn't let me even talk
'cause he said I not only sang out of tune
but I talked out of tune.
So, when Nathan wanted me in his movies
it was like, "Are you kidding me?"
(laughing)
- Well, you know why I always said I wanted you
in my movies, right?
- Yeah, 'cause of my stream of consciousness, talking.
- [Nathan] But I wanted you to,
but first I wanted you to be a writer.
Do you remember when I tried to get you to write a novel?
- Oh.
- [Dad] Really, when was that?
- [Nathan] When I was a teenager.
- [Dad] You wanted your mother to write?
- And what did you want me to write about?
- About your family.
- Oh...
So, then they would've all stopped talking to me
earlier than later. (chuckling)
- [Dad] So Nathan, what's the point of this?
- The point of this for me,
for you to tell a story,
the story that you would want to tell.
- Okay, but didn't I do that in Uncertain Terms?
- No, but you would have,
you would be directing it.
You'd write it and I'd help you to direct it.
- Oh, so you want me to be a director?
- [Nathan] Yeah.
- Is this something that you seriously want?
- [Nathan] Yes.
- You're kidding me. (laughing)
Okay...
and then what do you mean by directing it.
Like have someone else act it?
- Yes.
- [Mom] Like who?
- [Nathan] Her.
(laughing)
You hate this, don't you?
- [Nicole] No.
- No, tell me.
Do you hate it?
- No I don't hate it, I just didn't expect that.
(laughing)
- [Nathan] So we're gonna cast Nicole in the story.
- [Mom] We're gonna leave Nicole alone.
- What do you think?
- I never thought about it.
(all laughing)
Honestly, I never though of it at all.
And I think that's interesting because...
Cindy's always has created a lot of things.
But in terms of the arts,
it's always been me or Nathan or Eric.
You know what I mean, at creating something.
- Alright we'll talk about this another time.
- [Nathan] When the cameras are off?
(laughing)
- I have to go to temple.
(all laughing)
(theme music)