It’s 1976 and Elizabeth is just your average suburban eleven-year-old praying for adolescence to arrive when she discovers her whole life has been a lie. With only her imagination to guide her, Elizabeth runs away in search of her true identity. Her adoptive mother Marion is then forced to break out of the carefully constructed "truth" she’s been clinging to and go after her daughter. This leads to a cathartic cross-country trek by a mother searching for a daughter who’s searching for a mother – both of them really searching for themselves.
THE YEAR DOLLY PARTON WAS MY MOM is a poignant, sometimes funny, very female, coming-of-age story that explores the tension between creating identity and finding it within.
"This film feels like home to me on every level. It’s an expression of where I come from and what preoccupies me still. Identity and belonging." (Tara Johns)
