Through her documentary film making Ellie O'Sullivan, who died on November 18th aged 52, came to realise there is no such thing as a normal family. Her films, stemming from her own background of illegitimacy, explored the gap between the reality and the myth of family life.
Her first film, A Place Away, told the story of her mother, Lean, from the conflicting viewpoints of Lean's daughters and sisters. Premiered at the 1989 Cork Film Festival it was shortlisted for the Holstein Piccadilly short film award and chosen for the Expo'91 new directors slot.
Subsequent films let the stories emerge from between the cracks and contradictions of the differing viewpoints of family members.
There was Family Album (Channel 4, 1992) on different generations of the same family; the acclaimed Who Do I Love the Most? (1996) on sibling relationships, broadcast in BBC2's Picture This series.
Her last film, Five Degrees of Separation, looking at fathers and daughters, was finished just before she died.
Born in Dublin, she was the second daughter of a love affair between her mother, a domestic servant from Kerry, and a married man.
Shortly after the birth, her mother moved with her daughters to England.
When she was two, she and her sister were placed in a convent boarding school while her mother worked day and night as a waitress to support them and save for a home of her own.
The girls were entering adolescence when they returned permanently to live with their mother.
The ensuing, longed for, experience of family life was fraughtwith difficulties, but her interest in film was kindled; left alone for long periods the local cinema provided a refuge - she sometimes watched three films a day.
After leaving school at 16, and working as an au pair, her beauty and liveliness made her part of 1960s London. Charlotte, her only child, was born in 1970.
Becoming a mother gave Ellie O'Sullivan direction. She took A-levels, a good history degree and a one-year London University Institute of Education teaching course.
At the latter she became passionately involved in educational issues, and joined the women's movement of the 1970s.
Her solid relationship with her future husband, Pete Benjamin, and her commitment to her daughter, grounded her politics in reality.
For six years she taught English at Fulham's Mary Boon comprehensive school, identifying with the working-class girls she taught - many of whom were children of immigrants like herself.
She took a course in film-making to involve the girls in film projects, and in 1984 began part-time postgraduate film and television studies.
Then in 1986 there was a recurrence of the breast cancer diagnosed five years before. She lived with the cancer for the next 13 years, and the knowledge of her own mortality enabled her to look at life with enthusiasm and longing, learning about film making, embarking on a new and absorbing career.
Her zest for life was evident in her myriad interests and in her relationships with others. She was rewarded with lasting friendships.
Ellie O'Sullivan is survived by her husband, Peter Benjamin, daughter Charlotte and sister, Bridget.
Ellie O'Sullivan: born 1947; died November, 1999