Why 'Duty Free' Is The Perfect Mother's Day Movie To Support

While you should totally remember to celebrate your mother this Mother's Day, once you watch the trailer for the film Duty Free, you're going to also want to do something for mothers everywhere. Kickstarter is home to thousands and thousands of promotions, asking for funding to complete interesting, important and complex projects. But every once in a while, a project stands out for being different, and just a little bit more important — and that project, right now, is Duty Free.

Many middle class senior citizens still rely on employment to support themselves. Even though the national retirement age is 66, the benefits aren't always enough to warrant retirement at all. So what does a senior citizen do when they're laid off from a job they've had for most of their life? The job force for people in that age bracket isn't something we're often made aware of — which is exactly why filmmaker and son Sian-Pierre Regis created the film Duty Free. Because his mother's story could be any of our mother's story.

When Regis' 75-year-old mother was fired from her life-long job in hospitality, she didn't know what to do. After splitting her paychecks with her two children as a single parent her whole professional career, the stress quickly set in. With scarce savings and no luck finding an employer who was not put off by her age, she didn't know what her next step was. To alleviate his mother's distress, Regis came up with an idea that he would film (and that would later become an important documentary and subject matter to discuss): He started a bucket list with his mother. Together, they mapped out a list of experiences she was never able to have due to her long hours and familial responsibilities.

While this project has a promising sentimental appeal, it also has an important message that children of our age have to consider now more than ever: will our parents be OK? Our parents spend their whole lives worrying about their children being OK, but with an inconsistent job market, and lots of worrisome political policy changes, our parents, particularly those that are immigrants, might be at risk of a bumpy retirement.

So do get your mom a little something this Mother's Day, but also maybe consider contributing to this project to help the film get made. You can check out the trailer here:

And you can donate contributions as small as $10 — which comes with the reward of receiving a copy of his mother's famous chicken pot pie recipe. Perhaps that's something you could make with your mother this Mother's Day.