Hollywood Black Film Festival 2008

Based on the short story by pushcart-prize winning novelist Emily Raboteau, 'Murdering Mama's Boy' follows three days in the life of an American-born Haitian girl, her relationship with her mother and her overwhelming desire to commit murder. This film explores the alienation of first-generation Americans from their parents, the tense socio-economically influenced dynamic of household-help and the power of mother-love. On her 13th birthday Marie-Michelle finally decides to follow through on her sinister desire to kill Todd, the seven-year-old white boy her mother nannies for. Marie-Michelle despises the fact that her mother, Eugenia, coddles Todd. After some childish attempts on his life Marie Michelle visits a Houngan, or voodoo priest, and buys a death spell. The next morning- instead of finding Todd dead, she and Eugenia discover Claire, Todd's mother, in a self-induced pill coma. As Eugenia attempts to revive her, Marie Michelle sees Todd for the first time as a vulnerable and unloved person. She guiltily wonders if her trip to the Houngan brought about this calamity. That night the nearly-orphaned Todd stays with Marie Michelle and Eugenia in their one-room apartment where Eugenia recounts the harrowing and paradoxically poetic story of her sea-voyage from Haiti to Miami while eight-months pregnant. Although this is a story Marie Michelle has heard before, she finally understands just how much her mother has sacrificed for her. The next day she returns to the Houngan shop to atone for her sins and hopefully reverse the spell against Todd-- if it's not too late...