The 2021 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) has kicked off in November 17. One of the standouts for this year is ‘Eat Your Catfish’, a documentary about Kathryn who was diagnosed with ALS and has left her paralyzed from her neuromuscular disease. Having only her mind, sight, and hearing left, she was greatly overwhelmed by her disease and her complicated relationship with her husband Said and her son Noah living together to take care of her. One of the saving graces for her, is that her daughter is getting married soon and is holding on to life to be a part of her daughter’s big wedding day.
The concept of this documentary is conceived by her son Noah Amir Arjomand, who she has stated she loves his brilliance and outlook in life who asked her to participate in this documentary which she happily obliged. The camera setup is placed behind the top of Kathryn’s wheelchair, giving the audience the point-of-view of what Kathryn lives in her daily life. Kathryn’s ability to communicate is using a tablet and her eyes to assist her typing out her sentences and a voice reads aloud.
This camera setup really provides an intimate observation of what life is like dealing with disability, long term caretakers, and the dysfunctional relationship between her husband and her son. The footage is filmed with one camera non-stop and unscripted, with over 900+ hours recorded and pieces taken from it that best fits the storytelling of what life is like to be Kathryn. Kathryn is the main voiceover to narrate parts of the documentary and her observations.
The beginning of the documentary sets the tone with a bit of light humour and determination for Kathryn to be with her loved ones coming together for her daughter’s wedding day. But there are also brutally raw scenes of how her daily interactions are like between her husband Said, her son Noah, and herself, often due to the challenges of them taking care of Kathryn.
The title ‘Eat Your Catfish’ is a reference to a movie called ‘August: Osage Country’, starring Julia Roberts in a scene where a dysfunctional family has a screaming contest at a dinner table, where Julia keeps yelling to her mom to eat her catfish. Kathryn finds similarities to her family as one scene shows an outrageous argument between Said and Noah on how to take care of Kathryn. Noah would bring up the fact that Said is often a sarcastic and senile person who lacks the empathy in properly taking care of Kathryn. Kathryn can only sit there and witness the constant fights between her son and father, which is heartbreaking to watch from her perspective.
Said is painted as an unsympathetic husband who remains by her side. Kathryn has considered divorcing Said. However, it would complicate financial and personal matters that would potentially create more chaos in the family. For her to accept this to live peacefully, she just lets Said be the insensitive person, who she does not hold back telling him how she feels about him and how he treats her. The only saving grace is that she is surrounded by other loved ones like Noah, caretakers, friends, and family that give her the positive energy for her to live.
Her son Noah is also a big part of the reason why she’s still living. He is trying his best to balance his academics, while living with his parents in the New York apartment, who shows his empathetic and compassionate side to his mother. It can be shown that he has his frustrations with trying his best to take care of Kathryn, and dealing with the issues with Said. What’s interesting is that this is what daily life is like for all three, and it seems to be normalized for them being around each other in this type of relationship.
At the end of the day, with all the hardships and challenges that are shown throughout the documentary, the pursuit of happiness remains intact for Kathryn and all parties involved to take care of her through her time just to be there for her daughter’s wedding. Kathryn demonstrated insurmountable odds of patience and willpower to get through each day living through a dysfunctional family, which serves a great amount of inspiration for audience members to appreciate what one is capable of overcoming the odds if they really want to be a part of a special moment. The important message here is that there is a life worth living through ALS when you find a purpose to be a part of a big moment like her daughter’s wedding. Kathryn’s memory will be forever in everyone’s hearts as her story is shared in this documentary. Be sure to check this one out at the 2021 IDFA.