POV

-October 19, 1961. Cassandra Anne Bromfield is 5 years old. Come close. Stand around close. Everybody happy? -Yes.

Clicking

-Ooh. - Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you Happy birthday, dear Sandy Happy birthday to you -All right, wait. Let me take a picture of you cutting the cake.

Camera shutter clicks

-My memory of my mother taking pictures is that she always took pictures.

Waves crashing

I think she was fascinated and interested and wanted to document us being here.

Seagull calls

There was some foresight that she knew today would be happening. That she knew that we would be here today talking about her pictures.

Crashing continues

We moved here in 1964. I was between 7 and 8. I'm a person that's been here since the first brick. I saw those buildings go up. I didn't leave. I'm still here. It's -- You know, I never was not here. You know, we did things together. and my mother would sit in the lobby and take pictures. I thought other people had this. What I found on YouTube was I couldn't find other black people. I know we weren't the only black people that had a camera. I was just really, really lucky that we had it in a box, or we had it up high. When I got a hold of the digitizing the super 8, the 8mm films, I thought, wow these are stories here that I can tell. And apparently I filmed her, and she was painting on the terrace. And I said, "Oh, I know, I'll do it, and I'll put this music." And so on and so forth and then I walked out on the terrace with the camera. And then, I infused my mother's picture in there, you know, with her painting on the terrace. And that was one of the first ones I think I edited. So thank God there's YouTube because that stuff will be there. It will be there forever. I actually think my mother was way more creative than her opportunity. She would frame the photos very nicely. I think that she knew what the lens was telling her, but people didn't always feel they liked how close she got.

Waves crashing

Bird singing in distance

I just think it's incredible that her mind was seeing something so important that she filmed it. I made that decision that I would go to FIT and take up designing. I grew up sewing, and we made everything. Not because "colored people couldn't shop." We just liked to make things. The way I do the filmmaking is that I do kind of sew these stories together. I think it's the same thing that I'm doing. It's just a different medium that I'm using to do it. I am the keeper of the films. No one else would've done it. So I'm the only one that could've done it, and that was my role is to bring it forward. To make it possible for people to see. I feel that it's important. I do worry about because I don't have children, and I do worry about it because no one's going to give a damn when I go. It's over, and that I do worry about that. I think the last film my mother made of us was on the beach. Those are from when I was in junior high school, and I was in junior high school '70, '74, around that time. So I think that might have been the end of the 8mm camera. I think that when she became ill, I was devastated. I felt chunks of her just, you know, go away. You know, I remember one day in the hospital, she said, "Oh, I see my aunties and they're telling me to come." I said, "No! They're not telling you to go nowhere. They are not telling you to go. No, turn around! Aren't they telling you to turn around?" You know, and when I heard that conversation, I was just really devastated 'cause I knew what it meant. Um, she actually held on for quite a bit of time, but she wasn't conscious, and it was difficult, so... She lived a good life, and she fought the good fight, and then she couldn't fight anymore.

Waves crashing

It's those moments that you go, "Wow." You know, how much it matters. But that goes to show you about who the person was. You know, it's about a life. And that, I think, was how my mother felt. That these are lives. These are people who matter. Their faces matter. Their beauty. What they're doing, who they are. They matter. The neighbor has a life. These people have a life. That person down the hall has a life. They're all lives. I think that she wanted to say we were here. We were here, and we did these things. And we were happy when we did them. And, you know, remember us, please. Just for this moment, you're into my life, and that you have a pleasant memory, a pleasant idea of me. Who I am. You just watched a great documentary. -And we made it. -Thanks for watching "Into My Life." -We're three of the co-directors. I'm Grace Remington. -Cassandra Bromfield. -Sarah Keeling. -And we're missing Ivana Hucikova. -Keep watching documentaries. -And keep on watching ours. -That's it. -Perfect. -Okay?

Laughs

-Whoo!