Coolidge Corner Theatre Brookline, MA
Chelsea Conaboy
Journalist
The Babadook— Brain changes in parenthood
Program Description
Before the film, health and science journalist Chelsea Conaboy (author of Mother Brain: How Neuroscience Is Rewriting the Story of Parenthood) will discuss the major structural and functional brain changes that new parents experience.
Presented At
Coolidge Corner Theatre Brookline, MA
Film Synopsis
A mysterious and unsettling children's book forces a grieving widow to confront her resentment of her imaginative young son—and the possibility that his terrifying nightmares might be real.
Six years after the violent death of her husband, Amelia is at a loss. She struggles to discipline her 'out of control' six-year-old, Samuel, a son she finds impossible to love. Samuel's dreams are plagued by a monster he believes is coming to kill them both. When a disturbing storybook called The Babadook turns up at their house, Samuel is convinced that the Babadook is the creature he's been dreaming about. His hallucinations spiral out of control, he becomes more unpredictable and violent. Amelia, genuinely frightened by her son's behaviour, is forced to medicate him. But when Amelia begins to see glimpses of a sinister presence all around her, it slowly dawns on her that the thing Samuel has been warning her about may be real.
Photo courtesy of PHOTOFEST
About the Speaker
Chelsea Conaboy is a journalist specializing in personal and public health. She was part of the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer prize–winning team for coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing and more recently has worked as a magazine writer with bylines at The New York Times, Mother Jones, Politico, The Week, the Boston Globe Magazine, and others. She lives in Maine with her husband, their two young sons, and her own changing maternal brain.