Writer/director Susie Singer Carter’s short film My Mom and the Girl asserts that not even Alzheimer’s disease can suppress the human ability to comfort others.

Four-time Emmy winner Valerie Harper (Rhoda, The Mary Tyler Moore Show) stars as Carter’s mother, Norma, while Carter plays herself. The plot comes from experiences Carter had as a caregiver to her real-life mother, also named Norma.

The film doesn’t sugarcoat the effects of Alzheimer’s on Norma, a retired jazz singer. It starts with her pounding on her daughter’s bedroom door in the middle of the night, demanding to know what Susie has done with her “baby.” She curses Susie repeatedly before eventually recognizing that adult Susie is, in fact, her baby.

The language is ugly, but Harper demonstrates that the rage stems from the fear Norma experiences when she wakes up and doesn’t recognize the world around her.

Harper has battled lung cancer since 2009, but you wouldn’t know it from the strength she puts into Norma – or the enthusiasm she displayed at a post-screening Q&A during the Sedona International Film Festival.

In a voiceover following the opening scene, Carter explains that she took in her mother for a year as the Alzheimer’s spread – and doesn’t regret it. The film shows that when Norma is lucid, and even when she is foggy but contented, she remains the entertainer she was, lifting the spirits of those around her.

When she leaves the house with her caregiver, Irlanda, we see her flirt with a young parking valet, serenade a man on the bus and enjoy a merry meal with Irlanda’s family.

‘Dedicated to the Caregivers’

Portraying Irlanda, Liz Torres (The John Larroquette Show, Gilmore Girls) dives so deeply into the role that she’s virtually unrecognizable. Irlanda has a professional understanding of Norma’s condition, but she can’t avoid befriending Norma and becoming a character in her inner drama.

During another late-night episode, Norma flees out the front door. Setting aside the fact that she’s wearing a bathrobe, Irlanda grabs her keys and follows out the door and down several blocks into in a commercial area. Eventually, Norma finds herself waiting at a crosswalk with “The Girl” from the movie’s title, played by Harmony Santana (Transparent).

Actually, the audience has met The Girl already; she was on the bus, waiting in the aisle while Norma serenaded the man who boarded in front of her. Recognition prompts her to speak to Norma, when many folks would avoid even eye contact with a disoriented woman on the street.

A slightly calmer but still-grumbling Norma laments how horrible things are for her. Noting Irlanda hovering a few steps away, The Girl unloads some reality on Norma, telling her how it feels to truly be alone – and marginalized for being transgender.

Norma’s reaction is astonishing. It’s as if a light bulb goes on in her mind, and her own fears are pushed aside by the need to comfort another human being in pain. The grandma inside Norma emerges as she tells The Girl she is beautiful and assures her that she’ll be OK.

After pumping up The Girl’s self-esteem, Norma suggests her go-to treatment for the blues: ice cream. When we last see the women, Irlanda, Norma and The Girl are crossing the street, arms linked – women of disparate backgrounds linked by empathy.

Shot in just four days, My Mom and the Girl is a bit long for a short film. Officially it runs 23 minutes, but it seemed more like 40. That was OK, though, because I was so invested in the characters and their story. There will be two additional screenings in Sedona, at 6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 24, and Saturday, Feb. 25, at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre.

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Stu Robinson practices writing, editing, media relations and social media through his business, Phoenix-based Lightbulb Communications.

Tags: Alzheimer’s disease, Harmony Stantana, Liz Torres, My Mom and the Girl, Sedona International Film Festival, Susie Singer Carter, Valerie Harper