How to Make an American Quilt

Like "Waiting to Exhale", How to Make an American Quilt can also be described as a real women's film, in which the women get the chance to tell their life stories from their own point of view. Female friendship and solidarity are also central themes in both films, but unlike Forest Whitaker, Jocelyn Moorhouse tells her story with rather more commitment. There is altogether more meat on the story, or rather the many stories.

The protagonist is the Berkeley student Finn, who goes to spend a long summer holiday with her grandmother Hy and her great-aunt Glady Joe. Finn intends to complete her ethnographic thesis on women's cultures. At the same time, the stay, during which Finn gets the chance to study the quilting culture among the women of her family and their friends, is also an escape from reality, for at home her boyfriend Sam is waiting. He has started thinking about a wedding and children, but Finn cannot relate to that at all. Finn has a brief affair with a Californian hunk, but when the holiday is over and she has benefited from the experience of the many older women, she feels ready to make up her mind about the future and follow her heart.

One of the film's main attractions must surely be this distinguished ensemble of actresses playing the women who draw on their experiences to make Finn wiser about life. They are mothers, mistresses, rivals, daughters and friends who can at least agree on one thing: making Finn's wedding quilt.