‘Jacinta’ Review: A Neverending Cycle of Hurt
The New York Times, October 7, 2021: ‘Jacinta’ Review: A Neverending Cycle of Hurt
“When we first meet Jacinta — the 26-year-old subject of this distressing documentary portrait that bears her name — she’s on the verge of being released from her eight-month stint at the Maine Correctional Center. Jacinta’s mother, Rosemary, is also serving a sentence there; both women are recovering from drug addiction, and both have gone to prison multiple times. Oddly, the pair — scrappy soul sisters more than mother and daughter — seem at peace with their incarceration. And when it’s time for Jacinta to leave, both women teeter from ambivalence to desperation.
The remainder of the film grapples with an issue that might seem counterintuitive to the average viewer: Why might Jacinta dread her freedom? It’s not a simple answer, but the director, Jessica Earnshaw — a photographer turned documentarian who followed Jacinta over three years — responds generously by unfurling a long history of inherited trauma and regret.”
Additional reading:
Jacinta on Hulu
November 3, 2020: AFI Festivals Director of Programming Sarah Harris leads a discussion with director Jessica Earnshaw.
The Moveable Fest, October 7, 2021: Jessica Earnshaw on Exploring the Roots of Generational Trauma in Jacinta
