Help us gift a mothers’ charity a film about motherhood, made with five mothers from diverse backgrounds across the UK.
Project story
The film
'Mothers' is a poetic, fly-on-the-wall ode to mothers. We invite five women into the film, each at different stages of life, and ask them one simple, open-ended question: what would you like to ask another mother?
The other mothers answer, and from those answers we weave a short film of five to eight minutes. Their voices play over carefully framed scenes of daily life as mothers.
The film doesn't try to define motherhood or offer a single truth. It listens and honours the role as it really is: tender, exhausting, joyful, isolating, mundane and sacred, often all in the same day.
Why we're making it
For us, this one is personal. It started our love for our own mums. On top of that, Finn watched his sisters raise five children between them, and his partner, who had twins at 20. Seeing up close how much mothers carry, often with lots of expectation and without much recognition, made us want to make something that simply sits with them and listens.
In a world that feels increasingly divided, motherhood is one of the few experiences that we all encounter, albeit in different ways. We wanted to look past the opinions and the social media version of it, and back towards care and connection.
Why 16mm
Film grain has a softness and imperfection that digital doesn't. It slows everyone down, us included, and it suits a subject that is lived rather than polished. Every roll counts, which means we shoot with intention and attention, the same way the film asks its audience to look.
How we'll make it
We're working with our casting producer (and full-time Mum) Sophia, to find five mothers across the UK whose lives look very different on the surface. Once cast, we'll spend time with each of them at home, recording their questions and answers with care, then filming the rhythms of their days with a 16mm camera.
Where the money goes
£15,000 covers:
Timeline
After the film
Once it's finished, we'll gift this film to a charity that supports mothers, free to use on their website and social channels, so it can keep reaching the people it's made for.
Who we are
We're Finn White-Thomson and Nitin Rishi, co-founders of Akyn Studio. We've made work for New Balance, Spotify, the V&A, National Geographic and the United Nations, with backgrounds in environmental and humanitarian films with WaterBear and the UN. 'Mothers' is the most personal thing we've made, and we'd love you to be part of it.
You can read the full treatment here: https://readymag.website/u3265177811/mothers/ (formatted for Desktop).
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 1st December 2026 at 6:00pm