Convention requires every Catholic family to name at least one of their daughters in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Mary, Marie, Marion…Marilyn. BAPTISM is about how filmmaker Marilyn Freeman (aka, M) could never get in synch with that name— Marilyn. In a telling so intimate it seems to come over a phone at midnight, Freeman delivers their own story, transforming a relentless identity crisis into a one-of-a-kind family portrait. An unexpected visual mix accompanies M’s voice while a rotating cast of lip-synching Marilyn stand-ins enact the frustrating effort to conform. Funny, stirring, and original, BAPTISM is an experimental personal video essay about mystical inheritances, a mother’s secret gift, and the ways we discover ourselves through family
