EAT YOUR CATFISH

By Adam ISENBERG, Noah Amir ARJOMAND, Senem TÜZEN

ZELA FILM - as PROD

Documentary - Completed 2021

Kathryn’s ALS has left her paralyzed and her family’s relations in tatters, but she holds on to see her daughter’s wedding. With dark humor and extraordinary intimacy, this film probes the breakdown of a family’s bonds and of a woman’s will to live.

Festivals
& Awards

IDFA 2021
Envision Competition
Istanbul Film Festival 2022
Best Documentary
Antenna Film Festival 2022
Best Documentary
Emmy 2024
Outstanding Social Issue Documentary
    • Year of production
    • 2021
    • Genres
    • Documentary
    • Countries
    • USA, TURKEY
    • Languages
    • ENGLISH
    • Budget
    • 0 - 0.3 M$
    • Duration
    • 85 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Adam ISENBERG, Noah Amir ARJOMAND, Senem TÜZEN
    • Producer(s)
    • Adam ISENBERG, Noah Amir ARJOMAND, Senem TÜZEN
    • Synopsis
    • Years with ALS have left Kathryn paralyzed and needing 24-hour care. With her mind intact and having opted for mechanical breathing, she could live like this indefinitely. But the situation has drained her family’s finances, embittered and alienated her husband Said, and proved too much for many nurses and aides. Her grown son Noah, who lives with Kathryn and Said in their New York City apartment, struggles to balance his academic obligations with those he feels to his mother. The disease has also been a destructive force complicating relations between everyone in her family. Kathryn often falls into despair, but she has been holding on to see her daughter’s wedding day. This project draws on 930 hours of footage—all filmed without any crew present from a fixed camera from Kathryn’s point of view. The result is a profoundly intimate, layered portrait of a family at its breaking point.

      Supported by the Catapult Film Fund, Cinereach, Field of Vision, and the Center for Documentary Research and Practice at Indiana University, Bloomington.