My Duduś

My Duduś

During the summer of 2020, I returned home to Chicago during a break from my studies at the Łódź Film School in Poland. When I got there, my mother quietly walked me into a room where she gently pulled a strange, hairless creature out of a shoe box. It looked as if it had plummeted to earth from another planet. “He’s sleeping,” she whispered as she opened the box. A tiny head peeked out from the mountain of towels, blankets and a homemade heating pad made out of a used white sock and rice. “What is that?” I asked. I squinted my eyes as I gently moved the blanket to expose the animal’s torso. “Is that a squirrel?” I looked over at her, and even though it was dark, her beaming smile lit up the room. “Yes,” she nodded. My mother had found the baby squirrel abandoned in her yard. She contacted animal shelters nearby, but they were struggling to take in more animals during the Covid pandemic, so my mother began caring for him herself. My intuition told me to pick up a camera. I knew something special was happening. My mother, a Polish immigrant who had raised me by herself, had been dealing with her newly empty nest after I left for school, and I knew the joy that raising the squirrel would bring her. After returning to Poland, I saw my mother raise him as she raised me — with meticulous love and care. But he was a wild animal, and eventually my mother had to do what all mothers do: let her child go out into the world. Here, I document their journey together. - Director Tom Krawczyk  A film by Tom Krawczyk Featuring Czesława Krawczyk-Miczejko, Duduś the Squirrel, Kazimierz Miczejko and Louie the Cat Produced by Nick J. Santore Cinematography by Tom Krawczyk Story & Edited by Colin Santangelo OFFICIAL SELECTION: SXSW Film Festival Big Sky Documentary Film Festival — Best Mini-Doc Nomination Seattle International Film Festival Santa Barbara Film Festival SFFILM Festival Palm Springs International ShortFest Chicago Critics Film Festival — Audience Award The Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival Atlanta Docufest — Best Director Salute Your Shorts — Audience Award Sidewalk Film Festival Indie Street Film Festival Calgary International Film Festival — Honorable Mention Tallgrass Film Festival Charlotte Film Festival Drunken Film Fest Nashville Film Festival Hamptons International Film Festival DocsMX The Polish Film Festival Los Angeles Fresh Coast Film Festival Still Voices Film Festival Learn more: https://ift.tt/S5DkXYx https://nyti.ms/3gXkMBS