Yo
Love is a rebellious bird
After losing her good friend Yo, filmmaker Anna Fitch spends a decade obsessively building a detailed 1/3-scale version of Yo’s house. It’s just big enough for Anna to squeeze through the door and inside lives a 20in puppet of Yo. When the pair met, Yo was 73 and Anna just 24, but over almost two decades of friendship, they form a deep bond that defies the gap in their ages and experiences.
The film juxtaposes intimate vérité of Yo's last year with Anna's creative interpretations of Yo's dramatic life stories. Born in Switzerland in 1924, Yo lived life on her own terms, defying expectations around sexuality, mothering, aging, and even death. As the film blurs memory, time and invention, it also reveals the power of artistic creation to channel--and share--grief and love.
Director’s Note: In 2013, I lost one of my closest friends. Her name was Yo (Yolanda Shea). Yo was many things to many people: a great-grandmother, career weed dealer, intellectual, psychic, hostess, tyrant, a captivating storyteller. To me, she is an inspiration: a seer of truth and one of my best friends. I wasn’t ready to lose her. The film highlights the enduring power of friendship and what we learn from each other in life and through death. - Anna Fitch
A documentary film by
Anna Fitch
Banker White
Producers
Sara Dosa, Hannah Roodman
documentary in production