Mothering is showing in film festivals around the world. And is already winning awards in its own right, winning the Best British Short Film at the 2018 UK Film Festival, the Best British Film at the London Short Film Festival, and is an Official Selection at the Berlin Short Film Festival,. The juries, filmmakers and audiences who will shape culture are seeing Mothering and being inspired to see completely new ways to represent periods – free of shame and full of positivity. Bloodnormal has always been a campaign about creating a new normal for periods in culture and finding ways to put period positive imagery and iconography out into the world, The film bursary was an innovative way to fund young filmmakers to make films that would carry us further into culture than advertising and news could ever reach.

From hundreds of scripts entered into Essity’s Bloodnormal bursary, Mothering was one of three winners. At the heart of period shame is a lack of representation, or an attempt to euphemnise or ridicule the experience, leaving men disgusted and women feeling disgusting. in this film we see the opposite - an honest portrayal of a girl’s first period. On her first night in her new foster home a young girl starts to menstruate, staining her clothes and bedsheets. In her very vulnerable position this could be a highly traumatic experience, that could set a young girl on a path of shame about her body. However, her caring and deeply empathic foster grandmother helps her out and makes her understand that what has happened is perfectly normal and nothing to be ashamed of.