Fanny Lacrosse’s grandmother always felt a kind of kinship with dragonflies, whose life depends on the nearby presence of water. Forced to leave her apartment after suffering a stroke, her daughter and granddaughter take on the task of sorting through her belongings to choose what can go with her to the retirement home. It’s no mean feat: “Dragonfly” suffers from compulsive hoarding, a mental illness characterized by the pathological accumulation of objects.

In this touching, poetic and sobering story, the director struggles to understand her grandmother. She says in an interview, “My goal wasn’t to show her illness; I just wanted to get closer to her, to try to understand her. If someone fills up their home like that, what void are they trying to fill inside themselves?”

This love letter to a grandmother forced to “leave her home like you leave a sinking ship, a shipwreck on dry land,” tells a sensitive story about loss: what it’s like to lose your familiar points of reference and your treasured objects. The shots, voice-over and sound design weave together a magnificent piece that tenderly paints a picture of family ties during the transition to a long-term care home―watching the sun set on the life of our forebearer.


Winner of the 2020 Prix de la Découverte sonore from SCAM.

Jenny Cartwright
Documentarian and audio artist