‘Maps’ Charts the Distance Work Creates Between Mother and Child

variety.com:

Karen Idelson Georgia Fu was dying to get back behind the camera when she discovered Indeed’s Rising Voices competition.Fu hadn’t directed in nearly four years, but the idea of exploring the meaning of work resonated with the filmmaker.

Her previous short films all had traditional narratives but Fu wanted to push herself as far as possible; she went all in with “Maps,” an ambitious, 15-minute film that spans 30 years in the life of a small Asian family, struggling to stay connected as work and ambition pulls them in different directions.“The script for ‘Maps’ was a beautiful and moving articulation of the meaning of work,” says LaFawn Davis, Indeed’s senior VP of environmental, social and governance. “The intergenerational narrative that Georgia weaved within the story was the singular vision that Rising Voices looks for in a final selection.” The title “Maps” is metaphor for the way the film charts the distance work puts between a mother and daughter.

It’s an issue Fu faced with her real-life mom, who owned a home décor import and export business.“My mother was a full-time working mom,” says Fu, whose parents were Taiwanese immigrants. “She was always away when I was a kid.

She would travel to Asia a lot and it was just me and my dad growing up. He was sort of a ‘Mr. Mom,’ but I missed my actual mom a lot.”The daughter in Fu’s film starts as a young child, striving to please her mother and father.