East Coast Premiere

For some people—we jokingly refer to them as “packrats”—accumulation is a benign practice. But for “hoarders,” the impulse to acquire and hold on to material goods is a mental illness. MY MOTHER’S GARDEN is an unsettling autobiographical record of a daughter’s struggle to save her mother—a dangerously persistent hoarder—from herself.

Raised by a Holocaust survivor after World War II, Eugenia Lester learned not to be wasteful because conditions could change at a moment’s notice. When she moved to the United States in 1974, her hoarding intersected dangerously with the excessive consumerism of her new country. Garage sales and dumpsters were like goldmines to Eugenia, who was shocked and offended by the rampant disposal of what she considered to be useful items. Her hoarding only escalated as she raised her three children. All of them suffered as a result of their mother’s compulsion, and the family unit inevitably splintered.  

However, upon hearing that Eugenia was in danger of losing her home because the mountains of filth that blocked even her front door had violated numerous municipal codes, Cynthia—Eugenia’s only daughter—intervened with her brothers by her side. Equipped with a video camera and a desire to forgive her mother for derailing everyone’s life, Cynthia documented the crisis that was sure to erupt into total chaos. The result is an intimate film that takes us inside the shocking depths of the unruly Lester home and their fractured family to examine an illness that affects millions.

—Deborah L. Jaramillo