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Director Hopes Viewers Will Get Wrapped Up in ‘A Mother’s Love’

21 Mar, 2012 By: Ashley Ratcliff


A successful magazine editor with her own house and a fancy car to match, Regina Reynolds has the “independent woman” role down pat. But it’s her stubborn mentality that leads her astray in the emotive drama, A Mother’s Love.

Magnolia Home Entertainment April 24 (order date March 27) releases A Mother’s Love on DVD ($26.98). Bonus materials include a director’s commentary, handled as a critical analysis of the film’s messages, and an interview with Alexander and the co-producers.

In the film, Regina (Rolonda Watts) has gotten caught up in her material possessions, which triggers the demise of her marriage to Marcus (Julian Starks) and the estrangement to her drug-addicted daughter, Monica (Salina Duplessis). She loses her job after a misunderstanding with her boss, and the domineering woman argues with her prayerful mother, Georgia (Amentha Dymally), whose unwavering love allows her to see beyond her daughter’s pride and ego.

“Until you change yourself, nothing else will change in your life,” said Tim Alexander, the film’s director, producer, co-writer and cinematographer, among other roles. “… Every relationship the lead character had in her life was damaged: her mother, her daughter, her husband, her boss. She was the only common denominator.”

Originally envisioned as a stage play set in one room, Alexander (Diary of a Tired Black Man) took the story, developed by his cousin, Carolyn Alexander, and reimagined it as a film with more characters and heightened drama.

Alexander, with his Learning Through Conflict Pictures label, enjoys delving deeper into everyday problems with his films, an interest he groomed as a proficient blogger on social issues.

“Giving [viewers] a gentle, loving message doesn’t sink in,” he said. “Since they like reality TV and all these over-wound up shows and movies, I decided to make high-conflict movies that embed a message that you can’t detach from. And when you look at them, you’re looking at yourself and not the people on the screen.”

One such issue appearing in A Mother’s Love that many viewers will relate to is divorce. According to Alexander, women — like Regina — initiate 80% of divorces. Thus, he said he hopes the film will incite viewers to examine themselves.

“I hope that women, in particular, will realize that sometimes their strength and independence has them being competitors instead of companions,” Alexander said. “We’re taught that your education and your career are the defining moments of your life. On the other side of 50, your career doesn’t define you; the quality of your family does.”

Although it may be categorized as an urban film, A Mother’s Love is a universal story that transcends racial and cultural boundaries, Alexander noted.

“It doesn’t belong in just the black community,” he said, noting that the movie earned a five-dove rating from the Dove Foundation. “It just happens to have black people in it.

“This is a film that really needs to be shared,” Alexander added. “It needs to be sat down and watched with the entire family and discussed. … It doesn’t have any profanity, but it doesn’t lack a real punch in the jaw, as far as the visceral nature of the way it plays out. It was important to make a film that had all the exciting, edgy stuff, but nothing that would preclude anyone from watching it.”
 



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About the Author: Ashley Ratcliff


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