Mickalene Thomas talks HBO doc Happy Birthday To A Beautiful WomanPosted by Wilson Morales
February 23, 2014
Playing on HBO starting on Mon, February 24 – 9:00 pm is the short film, ‘Happy Birthday To A Beautiful Woman,’ which celebrates Sandra Bush, the mother and longtime muse of the film’s director, New York-based artist Mickalene Thomas.
Featuring intimate interviews with “Mama Bush,” as well as personal and archival photos, this is an emotional portrait of mother-daughter reconciliation as Sandra Bush achieves a measure of celebrity posing for her daughter’s most famous paintings.
Thomas, who’s known for her elaborate paintings adorned with rhinestones, enamel and colorful acrylics, recently spoke to Blackfilm.com about filming and sharing her stories about her mom to the public.
What led you to film your mother and tell her story?
Mickalene Thomas: Many times when I photographed my mother I would have conversations with her and those conversations were not documented. When she was getting sick I realized I wanted to ask her some questions to resolve two situations that I was aware of but I wanted to hear it from her. I knew that I wanted to have a conversation with her, but it wasn’t until she told me that she didn’t feel beautiful anymore that sort of sparked the entrance to film the conversation with she and I in a way that was a little more about mother and daughter, artist and muse relationship. I used her a lot in my work and thought it was the next step to go toward. At the time I thought about doing it as a video then as I went further film just seemed the best medium to work with.
What was the thought process not just for putting it on film but to let others see it?
MT: As people we all have our stories. For me this was more an art piece, it was more about defining my mother as a major subject in my work. I wanted people to really know and understand the person behind this image. Who is she, really? Who is Sandra Bush? It’s similar to people wanting to know who the Mona Lisa is.
What are some of the challenges you encountered as you filmed this? Were there any stories your mom said, “stop, I don’t want this on there”?
MT: No. My mother was a very savvy and smart woman and during the questions I asked she would very clearly say, “I don’t wanna answer that,” or if she did answer something she knew how to answer the question where she knew she wasn’t exposing herself. She didn’t say anything that people who were very close to her didn’t know about. She shared herself in a way that she was naturally. She wasn’t embarrassed about her life, but not many people knew her story, the things she went through, her challenges in her personal life. The people that knew were the ones she cared about. One of the major parts about this film is you see the trials and tribulations of different human beings which a lot of people in the world have gone through. Women who have been raped, abused, drug addiction… those are our realities. They may not happen to everyone, or they may not be in most people’s families, but this is someone who has endured all of those things and still, regardless, retained her own elegance and charisma, despite all her difficulties.
Once you finished filming, how did HBO come into it?
MT: I got a production team that was put together during the filming process. My producer who came on brought on another person. Once it was finished, during the debut at the Brooklyn Museum, we all thought this was a powerful film. It was never my intention to release this to a larger audience, it was always meant for the art world, that dialogue and that discourse. Once we brought Karen Lash on she really thought this was something we should present for film festivals. She had a great connection with Dan Abrams at HBO, and he came to see it at my show and responded well to it. For me as an artist, my expectations were really within my world. TV is such a bigger theater, there’s an opportunity for people to be inspired in their own way. Whatever they find familiar in the story for themselves, whether that’s finding reconciliation with their own parents or getting their own questions answered, that’s one of my greatest hopes, that people will find their own resolve.
When you premiered it in Brooklyn what was your mom’s reaction?
MT: She loved it! She loved the film. During the editing process there were some images and clips from the film I wanted to get her approval on, one in particular where she talks about my father raping her. She did see a lot of the different clips while we were stitching the film together because I wanted her to be comfortable with how I was creating the story. When she saw the finished product she loved it, she sat in the room during the entire opening and her only criticism was that I didn’t airbrush the wrinkles out. My mother was quite vain, so for her she always wanted to make sure she looked good. When I filmed her at her house, before we start filming there was a good hour and a half before she was dressed because she wanted to look good for her story.
It’s an extraordinary piece, and the fact that it’s being shown during Black History Month means people will get a chance to see it and be touched by it.
MT: I’m really happy, this is one of the biggest moments for me to be able to share this with the world. I’m definitely going to work more in film, I definitely have other projects brewing.
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