A septuagenarian woman from St. Louis, Missouri has been a miniaturist, businesswoman, museum president, Girl Scout leader, teacher, student, mother, daughter, and most of all, an indomitable human spirit. Life is what you make it.
Joanne Martin: A Life in Miniature is about a woman from St. Louis, Missouri who has been a miniaturist, a businesswoman, a museum president, a girl scout leader, a teacher, a student, a mother, a daughter and most of all an indomitable human spirit.
A septuagenarian woman from St. Louis, Missouri has been a miniaturist, businesswoman, museum president, Girl Scout leader, teacher, student, mother, daughter, and most of all, an indomitable human spirit. It's a story about how one unstoppable woman refuses to be underestimated and continuously proves her detractors wrong, ultimately creating a miniature reality around herself - even suggesting that God would have to understand her point of view.
The film is edited in a non-linear format. By the midpoint of the film, one understands that the pieces are part of a disjointed but focused narrative that describes the origin and backstory of a remarkable character.
The documentary reveals Joanne's life as someone who would not take no for answer and refused to be satisfied with circumstances that she found disagreeable. While it goes unstated, her desire to make a reality for herself allows her to live in a world of her making, where she fits - a reality that conforms to her will and does not necessarily conform to the expectations of those around her.
Even the idols that Joanne appreciates are not immune from her insightful and sometime scathing critique. By the end of the film, one has a better sense of who Joanne is and how she came to be but also what it takes to be a miniaturist. The experiences she relates in the film always represent how she was exposed to something, found the experience lacking, and decided to do something about it.
The film shows that women, even women raised during a time of far less personal freedom and agency, can recapture or restore that agency and do what they believe is right and create a world that serves them.
