Blue Bag Life

An audacious and deeply personal odyssey through love, artistry, and self-hood illuminates this uncompromising and powerful documentary portrait of a life touched by addiction. Blue Bag Life is a story gleaned from material collected over a lifetime. Lisa Selby, an artist, and lecturer, has always documented her life in paint, words, photographs, and film. As Lisa struggles to comprehend why her mother Helen didn’t raise her, Helen dies. Helen was charismatic, articulate, beautiful, and addicted to heroin. Lisa now begins to get to know the woman she never called Mother, through the things she left behind and the memories of people who knew her. Lisa’s partner, Elliot, relapses into heroin and is incarcerated. Through her own sobriety and her love for Elliot, Lisa comes to understand addiction, and Helen, differently. She also uncovers a new possibility towards motherhood deep within herself. An intimate story of loss and longing evolves into a wider contemplation of love and acceptance.