Sian-Pierre Regis has been many things: a journalist, an influencer in multiple social media spheres, founder of online cultural magazine Swagger.NYC, and contributor to outlets including CNN, CNNi, HLN, CBSN, and MTV. He also created YOU(th) VOTE!, BET’s multi-platform voting initiative in 2008. Passing on his social media knowledge to his mom Rebecca while she struggled to find work,it became deeply ingrained in his debut documentary, Duty Free. A personal film about mother and son checking off a lengthy bucket list, as well as offering a wider look at how Western society often has a disposable, ageist attitude toward loyal, older workers, Duty Free has something for all generations to connect with.
Duty Free is “a son’s warm, socially relevant love letter to his mom,” wrote Caryn James in The Hollywood Reporter. “A lovely, smartly crafted, informative tribute to her and so many in her jobless situation.”
Sian-Pierre talked to us about why he wanted to make a film about his mom’s story and what it meant to go on this journey with her.
What led you to want to make a film about your mom?
This film has defined me.
As a burgeoning reporter, I focused my time and effort on telling stories of celebrities and social movements, on young artists and popular culture for outlets like MTV, CNN, HLN, and more. Though I was living out my dream of being on TV, many of the stories I covered felt in service to the audience or to the corporation, not to some greater good.
And then my mom was fired at age 75.
My mom worked every day of her life behind the hotel curtains, up and down stairs, on her knees and at the tips of her toes, making sure every room was spotless. She was a tireless champion of her family of immigrant co-workers. And in a day, she was cut off from all of them, from the work she so loved, and left with just two-weeks pay and a move-out date from her apartment.
Her sheer disposal at her age, and with no justifiable cause, riled up a passion in me that I had never found in any story I’d covered. So I began shooting her life in earnest: her search for a new job to pay her bills, her daily frustrations supporting my mentally ill brother, etc. But as I searched for the core of her story, I also was compelled to be her son, to be her protector, and to be her friend.
And where did the notion of doing a collaborative bucket list come from?
The bucket list idea was born from a deeply emotional desire to pull her out of her sadness, to show her what life could look like, and prove that there was reason for hope in her latest act. And so this film jockeys between two worlds: what it’s like to be invisible in this society at 75, and how just one person, or one experience, can bring all the color back.
In front of my lens, my mom was always raw and real. Coming from a blue-collar shipping family in Liverpool, she has grit, sass, and a determination to succeed without excuses. Throughout filming, it was important for me to focus on not simply what happened around my mom—her firing, my mentally ill brother’s needs, the digital revolution—but how this woman dealt with them, often on her own.
The reserved character that her co-workers saw on hotel floors, and that I often saw growing up, melted away through a series of one-on-one interviews, where her despair, her frustrations, and her unyielding hope shone through. These intimate, unguarded moments, both on our adventures and in her living room, are the heart of this story.
How did you make such an intimate film without being too intrusive, yet also seemingly always present for so many touching moments with your mom?
It wasn’t easy. There were so many times where I’m on the other side of the camera with tears rolling down my face. But each time, I told myself I couldn’t put the camera down. That if I just held the camera on my mom for a bit longer, someone might see themselves in her story. They, too, might recognize the heartache and the hurt of what it feels like to be jobless or homeless in this country despite having done just about everything right. And that gut feeling has rang true. We’ve had thousands of people reach out to us to say that my mom’s strength and determination has inspired them through their darkest of days.
As for being intrusive, my mom raised us in a tiny apartment…we just about lived atop one another. So we’re used to sharing our tough moments with one another in the open. This film journey was, in some ways, an extension of our childhood experience.
And was it easy or hard to get Rebecca to trust you making a film about her life?
The key to this film’s success (and beauty) is the trust my mom had in me to tell her story honestly and fully. Not every film subject can say that they fully trusted the person capturing their lived experience, and I think that’s probably why she’s so relaxed and genuine in front of the camera.
What did you learn while making Duty Free with your mom?
In making Duty Free, I’ve learned so much about what it means to be a storyteller and what it means to be a son. But what I want more than anything from this project is for my mom to be seen. I want others to experience her character, her authenticity, her grit, and her elegance. I want people to see the woman that has helped define me as a man.
And in doing so, I hope that we, as a country, can re-center our notions of what it looks like to be “old” in America today. To surprise, delight, and inspire an audience with a character we don’t often get to see in film—the 75-year-old everywoman.
How’s your mom doing now, after the filming stopped?
Well, my mom now lives with me, my partner, and our two dogs in New York City. She moved in with us at 79, during the pandemic, and hasn’t left! We’re really enjoying this next adventure together and taking notes on how to live intergenerationally. Plus, she’s taken over MY spot as Mayor of the block…everyone considers her the local celebrity.
Can you talk about her recent social media stardom after you first began this project and tell us more about what you’ve been up to together since the filming stopped?
My mom’s gained a huge following on social media and found an entirely new community there since we began filming Duty Free some five years ago. She doles out advice on how to make your home look like a hotel in her weekly #HousekeepingHacks; she gives advice to folks who’ve recently been laid off; she calls out ageism wherever she sees it.
But mostly, she inspires people—young and old—to recognize that your best days might actually be ahead of you.
SO happy to see my mom + her story quoted in this great article re: POJA bill passing today in the House!!!!!! 🎉❤️#DutyFreeFilm
Thanks @BenjaminEW for covering this crucial story and to @RepSylviaGarcia and her colleagues for voting on behalf of older adults! https://t.co/v7a4yMSSU8
— sianpierre (@sianpierre) November 4, 2021
Living together and traveling together, did you become closer through this shared experience?
The truth is that we didn’t become closer—we’ve always been a dynamic duo, ha—but what the film DID do is allow me to see my mom as a human being. As textured and complicated and beautiful with her own set of choices and decisions. Unfortunately, not many of us can say that we know our moms as anything but our moms and by asking every question I’d ever wanted to know, I got to see my mom as a lot more than that.
You mentioned how so many people have reached out to Rebecca about how her story inspired them. Any particular favorite anecdotes from someone who wrote to you both about their own story, or a similar story with an aging parent in the workplace?
We’ve heard from a 65-year-old woman who emailed her HR department after seeing the film to ask why the company emailed its 60+ employees with a leaflet that said “Have you begun to think about your retirement?” It felt targeted, ageist, and unnecessary. And the company agreed.
We’ve heard from one woman who just brought her mom on a cruise through Southern France after asking her mom what was on her bucket list.
And, most powerfully, we’ve heard from multiple folks who have lost their moms and are following my mom on socials so that they can live through the relationship we have. Every single one of those messages made me cry.
What are some things on your own bucket list that you haven’t gotten to while going on these journeys with your mom? What’s on Sian-Pierre’s bucket list?
LOL. I always say that Duty Free Part 2 will be my mom bringing ME on my list.
Maybe a few days in a jungle? Or go to the Academy Awards as a nominee on a next film? You know, simple stuff!
Do you think seeing this film might change perspectives on how this country views worker rights for older people? How can it change societal ageism?
Oh my, yes. I think this film has already done that. We were a #1 Apple News story over Mother’s Day, we sold out the IFC in New York, we were on every national news network with the same message: Older folks, like my mom, are malleable, curious, bright, sharp, active, and capable. We have changed minds and hearts around what age looks like in 2021. And we hope that when this film hits Independent Lens, we’ll add a new narrative to the canon that shows older folks in an honest, modern light. We owe that to the culture.
What other challenges did you face in making Duty Free?
Gatekeepers telling me the way to make my film “if I wanted it to get distribution.” But also making a case that just because this film focuses its gaze on an invisible class of people, doesn’t mean that the story shouldn’t be told. The fact is that those who look like my mom and experience this America like my mom deserve to have MORE of their true narratives being shown vs. what we’re seeing in popular television, streaming websites, etc.
What’s one of your own favorite moments in Duty Free?
I think the scene of my mom visiting the grave of her sister continues to have a lasting effect on me. She couldn’t make it to her sister’s funeral because she was working. It’s a reminder for everyone to think deeply about what they prioritize in their everyday…must it always be about work? And what can you gain if you’re able to put family first.
What would you have liked to include in Duty Free that didn’t make the cut?
More bucket list items! Walking the Boston Marathon in 90 degree heat with my mom was certainly a feat, but we just couldn’t fit it into the story arc. It further proved that age ain’t nothing but a number!
What are your three favorite/most influential documentaries or feature films?
Little White Lie; TIME; Love & Diane.