Autumns Eyes is a feature documentary seen through the perspective of a beautiful three-year old girl as she tries to navigate through the harsh reality of severe poverty, her teenage mothers incarceration, and looming foster care. The film captures the period of time that Autumn is separated from her teenage mother, Antoinette, as she sits, unable to pay the $5000 bail, in Hudson County Prison awaiting trial. Though days inside the prison can seem painfully monotonous, the family, and particularly Autumn, is left to endure life on the outside without her mother. Placed in the care of her inappropriately honest and unconditionally loving grandmother, Rose, Autumn accepts her new life and new responsibility as a big girl until Mommy comes home. Despite Grandma Roses deteriorating health due to diabetes, she attempts to keep food on the table, lights on in the house, and clothes on the back of her growing children by any means necessary. With swollen feet and skyrocketing blood sugar, she travels with Autumn to prison for visits and to court to peek from the pews at her Mommy as her fate is determined in front of her innocent eyes.
To Autumn, this is life: If she does not have a coat, she wont be able to go to school this winter. If the lights are turned off, she will bathe at her neighbors for the week and eat Crowns Chicken, again, by candlelight. If Grandma goes to the hospital, she knows not tell anyone that she is being taken care of by her 11 year old aunt and 14 year old uncle. She thinks that cops are bad, judges are liars, and fears the Department of Child Welfare Services. If mommy calls from prison, she will accept the collect call and tell her that she will never forget her.
Autumn is oblivious to the poverty and the perilous situation in which she is living, and keeps the family together with her quick wit and beautiful innocence. With the camera placed at Autumns eye level, the film captures this impressionable time in a childs life, and ask the greater societal question: Is there truly hope for a child growing up in these circumstances?
It was through the 2005 Independent Spirit Award Nominated feature film On the Outs, which starred Autumn Collier and Paola Mendoza, that the Co-Directors of Autumns Eyes, Gabriel Noble and Paola Mendoza were able to meet Autumn and her family. While doing research for her role for On the Outs, Mendoza met Autumn and was immediately captivated by her quick wit and her unnerving maturity. In the film, Mendozas character, an incarcerated teenage mother was written to have a 3-year-old daughter, which Mendoza thought Autumn would be perfect for. Noble, serving as the Assistant Director of the film, brought Autumn to a rehearsal where she captivated the directors and was immediately cast in a staring role along side Mendoza in the film.
A few weeks after completing principal photography for On the Outs, Autumns real mother was involved in a robbery and arrested. Unable to pay $5000 bail, she sat in prison for 10 months. Shocked by the fact the life was imitating art, Mendoza and Noble decided to pick up a camera and tell Autumn's story.
"Talk about putting a human face on a subject. Mendoza and Noble's fine personal documentary looks at three generations of women in poverty from the perspective of Autumn Collier, a clever and observant 3-year-old girl in Jersey City." - Austin Chronicle
"A sensitively filmed story of a little girl longing to reunite with her mother, and vice versa."-Austin Chronicle
"It's a touching and, at times, heart wrenching documentary that really needed to be made. " - Aint it Cool News
This profile was edited with SpaceMisc.com Editor
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