Valentine’s Day is around the corner and this means new movies to celebrate the holiday. The Photograph is a black romantic film starring Issa Rae and LaKeith Stanfield. Rae plays Mae, the daughter of a famed photographer who dies leaving Mae with questions about herself, her mother and love itself. The cast of The Photograph recently chatted with Essence about Black Love and what it means to them.
“Black love, it’s unique. It’s special. It’s life-giving. Its confidence-inducing. I mean, its everything to me. There’s nothing like it’, said Rae. Comedian Lil Rel Howery who co-stars in the film added, “You know when people throw out black love it’s always just the romantic part of it but, its really family especially in this movie which is like black people looking comfortable and angry… black love is so much bigger than just two people.”
Chante Adams continued the conversation by saying bringing up the point that the decisions that parents make affect their children’s partnerships as adults. The Photograph is a great representation of that point as Mae spend the movie being conflicted about her love life as her mother was “not really good at love.” Issa Rae agreed with this sentiment saying that this is what attracted her to the movie and that the generational element was very exciting. “I didn’t realize how much my parent’s decisions and my parent’s marriage also affected my own relationships”.
Written and directed by Stella Meghie, she said that she felt it was important to make movies like this because they aren’t often seen in the marketplace. In the movie, watchers see Mae ponder whether or not she will be bad at love like her mother. Howery went on to describe the film as an experience. “Between the music and the images and just the story. You want to experience that in the theater.” Issa Rae said that she hopes that this film will do the same for its audience that movies like “Love Jones” and “Love and Basketball” did for her. She says she recalls exactly how those movies made her feel and how they inspired her. The Photograph opens on Valentines Day February 14th.
Watch the full interview on Essence.com