Stage Mother

Maybelline Metcalf (Jacki Weaver), a middle-aged homemaker and choir director of her conservative church, has spent her entire life in rural Texas. After learning the sad word that her son Rickey (Eldon Thiele) has died of a drug overdose, she defies her husband and travels to San Francisco. There she discovers that she has inherited her son’s drag club and surprises her closed-minded husband and everyone else she knows by setting out to save the club from bankruptcy. In this raucous, racy new environment, she begins to open up and find new meaning for her life, even becoming a mother-figure to the club’s flamboyant performers. Maybelline soon embraces the atmosphere of diversity characterized by the city of San Francisco, while a chance meeting stirs long dormant feelings of romance and passion. A showdown with her husband leads to a major decision.

Set in San Francisco, Stage Mother was actually shot in and around Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was voted Best of Fest at the 2020 Palm Springs International Film Festival.