ABSTRACT
Motherhood in cinema is often a side plot – this PhD project in Artistic Research seeks to challenge that. Through collecting, writing, and “doubling” as methods, it explores the maternal experiences of three filmmakers and how these complex realities can take shape in a hybrid film blending fiction, documentary, live action, and animation.
The research addresses a gap in representation, where female doppelgängers and alter egos are rarely linked to motherhood, despite its deeply transformative nature – an obvious foundation for doubling. In filmic narratives, female doubles are often cast as antagonists or disruptions rather than reflections of a mother’s evolving self. The lens post-birth shifts to the child’s development and perspective, leaving the mother’s transformation – her shifting identity and sense of self – largely unexplored.
This project takes a different approach, using interviews, video recordings, animated investigations, and personal reflections to explore the challenges of balancing motherhood and filmmaking. By aligning maternal experience with cinematic doubling, it highlights the multifaceted roles women navigate in both fields.
The research also engages with filmmakers and artists who challenge conventional portrayals of motherhood. Though caregiving perspectives appear in short-form animation, hybrid long-form representations are still rare. Influences include literary works exploring motherhood, identity, and doubling, such as Matrescence by Lucy Jones and August Blue by Deborah Levy.
Rather than aiming for a traditional completed film, the outcome prioritizes the process. It includes a synopsis and excerpts from the evolving script Make Her See, alongside documentary footage, interviews, animation tests, and live-action experiments. Incorporating doppelgängers and animated alter egos, the project blends realism and surrealism to examine a woman’s vulnerabilities and resilience as she redefines herself.
This artistic research expands the representation of motherhood in mixed media film, connects the maternal experience to cinematic doubling, and opens new possibilities for nuanced maternal narratives.
The artistic doctoral outcome consists of the following:
A presentation of the artistic processes and outcomes, paired with the screening of audiovisual investigations at Cinemateket Trondheim on 2nd of June, 2025.
A series of audiovisual explorations, including documentary edits, an animatic, a screentest and video loops, available in the exposition on the Research Catalogue under the pages Collecting and Doubling.
A written reflection available as a PDF in the exposition on the Research Catalogue under Writing.
A synopsis and script excerpts are included in the written reflection PDF as appendix on the page Writing.
A script titled Make Her See developed as the major artistic output in this PhD in Artistic Research. Due to potential future production, it can be accessed by contacting Denise Hauser via her Research Catalogue profile.
Denise Hauser
HYBRID NARRATIVES: Approaching Maternal
Experience through Collecting, Writing, and Doubling
in the Development of Mixed Media Film
In partial completion of a PhD in Artistic Research
at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2025.
Main supervisor
Nina Grünfeld
Co-supervisors
Birgitta Hosea
Asbjørn Tiller