'Mom & Me' traces Lena Macdonald's search for her drug-addicted mom

In an alleyway in Toronto, Harriet Durham digs through trash, Lena Macdonald is pleading with her to get off the streets, and go to a shelter.

Lena is a filmmaker, and Harriet is her subject. But Lena is also a daughter, and Harriet is her mother. She was 17 years old when she started filming her mother. She spent the next 15 years working on one, big project. All those years she documented her search for her mom, on the city streets... and then her attempts to help her get back on her feet.

"I have a good life but I'm drowning in hers" - Lena Macdonald on her relationship earlier with her mother, Harriet.

Her mother was addicted to crack cocaine, often homeless... and often working in the sex trade.

But the documentary, "Mom and Me," does have an uplifting ending... as you might surmise from the fact that both the filmmaker Lena Macdonald, and her mother, Harriet Durham, who is off the streets, clean and sober, joined Anna Maria in studio to talk about their relationship and how it came about.

"Mom and Me" screens at the Hot Docs Festival tonight and on Saturday night.
 

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​This segment was produced by Liz Hoath.