Sylvie of the Sunshine State

South Florida filmmaker Sasha Levinson aims her unflinching lens at her eccentric multigenerational Jewish family in this unconventional documentary, offering a startlingly honest glimpse into modern motherhood. For Sasha, the act of filmmaking is a way of life, a creative outlet, and a salve for the wounds of her past, so when the external world was turning to chaos in the early stages of the COVID-19 health crisis, she decided to make a film with her precocious but learning-challenged nine-year-old daughter, in an attempt to stay sane. Sylvie of the Sunshine State began as a filmmaker’s experiment with her life narrative as a video diary, but what emerged is a therapeutic exploration of single motherhood, long-distance co-parenting, and multigenerational feminine trauma, which ultimately gives way to healing. A “lockdown” film that truly captures a unique moment in time, this amazing and intimate document provides a shockingly honest look at parenting, with the intention of helping families everywhere find peace within the knowledge that we are all gloriously imperfect.