Joshua:
I love the track because it manages to be both intensely personal and honest but still uplifting and celebratory. It feels contemporary, unique to Ray but also kind of classic.
I wanted to reflect that in the video both in tone and look. I wanted to make a film that came from the same place as Ray and felt specific to her and her Mum. So the idea was that Ray would perform the track directly to her Mum in a church in South East London. Ray used to sing in church choirs growing up and the church is a huge part her Mum’s life and beliefs. We wanted it to be like the kind of services they would have experienced together so cast real church goers to be part of the congregation and set it up like a service. The plan was that her Mum wouldn't know that Ray would be performing the song to her until it was happening so there would be that genuine, heartfelt emotion both in Ray’s performance and her Mum’s reaction. It was kind of scary and exciting not knowing how she would react but we did everything possible to protect that genuine moment and make sure we captured it. It felt pretty special to witness the emotion and connection between the two of them.
Of course while very personal to Ray and her upbringing you can interpret the song as a celebration of Mothers everywhere. Their sacrifices, everyday hardships, their unquestioning and special love. So we street cast real Mums from SE London and took a very small crew into their real homes to capture intimate moments between the Mothers and their Children. It was quite amazing how they opened their lives to us. Visually we wanted these moments to have a more evocative, poetic feel but still be grounded in authenticity. I think the DoP Joe Cook did a beautiful job. I like that these moments makes the film more universal in it’s emotion and hopefully relatable.
