Influenced by filmmakers as diverse as Ed Pincus and Carolee Schneemann, Anne Charlotte Robertson was a Boston area Super 8 filmmaker who examined and shared her life through her work – a mix of essay, performance and stop-motion animation. Diagnosed with various and changing mental disorders, Anne faced several breakdowns and mental hospitals – experiences she documented and exorcised thoroughly through her films – particularly within the annals of Five Year Diary, a project spanning nearly two decades. Though relentlessly intense and emotional, her films are not entirely bleak, for her bracing self-awareness and humor energize and bring a rare effulgence to the depths of her darkest moments. Anne boldly exposed her most intimate and obsessive inner dialogues – from illness, breakdowns and longing for love to diets, cats and the minutia of existence. She also considered the filmmaking experience therapeutic and cited the process as helping cure her depression.

Reel 5: Mourning (23 to 30 January 1982) follows in the wake of the death of Richard Robertson, the filmmaker’s father. [It] covers … seven days of the family going through their father’s papers, taking walks in the snow and huddling inside watching football. (Anjo-marí Gouws)

The first of many year-end holiday reels. Cooking, cleaning, pixilation. (Liz Coffey)

Anne takes a road trip to Niagara Falls trip with her family in this exceptionally beautiful Diary reel. (Liz Coffey)