Writer/Director Maia Scalia’s Powerfully Moving Short Film HIS MOTHER touches on Gun Violence and Mental Health

My guest today is filmmaker and actress Maia Scalia.

Inspired by a true story, Maia Scalia’s directorial debut HIS MOTHER takes the viewer through a gripping and terrifying journey as a mother races to stop her son from doing the unthinkable. This riveting short highlights the complexities of being a mother of a child who commits a violent crime and broadens the ongoing dialogue around mental health and gun violence by offering a perspective that is so often silenced in social dialogue.

As a society, we are going to have to be bolder, but also compassionate to the hidden darkness and pain that many people live with on a daily basis. We can’t continue to be numb and avoid the signs that are before us.

Maia Scalia’s film is a much needed reminder, that goes far beyond if you see something say something.

The short film HIS MOTHER, actress Bethany Anne Lind gives an award winning performance that reaches the very depths of your soul and rips your heart out. For some it could be excruciating to watch and it should be. Mental health is no joke.

The cinematography of this film is stellar. Filming from inside a car dealing with multiple changes in light and shadows is not an easy task, but Matt Clegg made it look easy.

The camera movement added to the tense situation as well as the varieties of tense dialogue.

She had supporting roles in Sony Marvel’s MORBIUS, Phyllis Nagy's CALL JANE starring Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver and the Starz series THREE WOMEN.

Maia comes from a family rich in film history, her father Pietro Scalia is a two time Academy Award Winner. 

Her latest short film, titled HIS MOTHER is inspired by a true story which touches on gun violence and the impact this has on a mother who is trying to stop her son from doing the unthinkable. This incredibly gripping film has been selected for the OSCAR Qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival and Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival. 

Executive producer/editor Pietro Scalia of HIS MOTHER has been nominated for four Academy Awards, and won Oscars for JFK and BLACK HAWK DOWN. Re-recording mixer Kevin O’Connell has 20 Academy Award nominations to his name, winning once for HACKSAW RIDGE.

In the film, actress Bethany Anne Lind gives a captivating performance as the mother Julie. She is best known roles in OZARK, STRANGER THINGS and played the lead in the film BLOOD ON HER NAME.

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