1001 Days Film Screening

The first 1001 days after conception are crucial to a child’s development. Yet in the township of Alexandra in Johannesburg, survival is a constant struggle for young mothers who often have to raise their children alone, and barely have time for themselves and their babies. Through a series of intimate, and at times, uncomfortable, conversations, 1001 Days presents a snapshot of motherhood in Alexandra during the crucial first three years of life.

A group of women from the Ububele Home Visiting program, who are themselves also from Alexandra, are working to transform the neighbourhood by improving the mental well-being of mothers and their babies. They do so by talking and offering advice to the mothers. 1001 Days centers on home visits made by three of the women, Thandiwe, Khosi and Zanele, as they work to build bonds of trust with the young mothers.

This screening of 1001 Days was followed by a Q&A with the film’s director, Zikethiwe Ngcobo, and producer Rose Palmer. Rose was awarded her PhD in early child development while working for the Psychoanalysis Unit and the Anna Freud Centre, and said of her return to the Unit:

The screening of 1001 Days in the Psychoanalysis Unit was wonderful. It was very moving to come back to the place where the whole film idea began and to share it with my ex-colleagues who supported me in making the idea become a reality. Not only that but the home visitors who we follow in the film, deliver an invention inspired by Peter Fonagy's work on reflective functioning and mentalization. And PEP has been an incredible supporter of the film, we literally couldn’t have completed it without their belief in us. The unit nurtured this film in the same way that the home visitors we followed nurture the mothers and babies!